BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — An English woman has been surprised after she released a helium balloon in Birmingham earlier this month to commemorate the anniversary of her father's death. The balloon ended up traveling more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers), crossing land and sea to land in a field in northern Poland.

A farmer found it there, was moved by the gesture of a grieving daughter and texted the phone number she put on the balloon.

Nicola Bowler said, "Sometimes when I speak to my dad, I look up into the sky. So the balloon, I hoped it would travel up there to him."

She said her father, who died at the age of 68 from cancer, wasn't very well-travelled. She believes the distance the balloon traveled now "would mean loads to him."