Here's a story from my college years.
Walking home from IHOP after a party, I ran into a woman crying on the street, and then yelling at some guys who were catcalling her. I asked if she needed any help and if there was something I could do. She asked me to walk her home, to which I said okay. Over the course of that walk, she proceeded to tell me that she had just been raped by a friend whom she went to his apartment to study with. She asked me some basic stuff, like if I thought she should go to the police (I said she should, but that she didn't have to if she didn't want to go through all it entailed) and why someone would do something like that (that is a heart-wrenching question to actually be asked, by the way). Once we got back to her place, she called her roommates to come get her (I guess she didn't have her key to get into the building), and they thanked me for helping out.
I was generally a helpful person before that, but after, if I ever see someone in distress in public, I will ask them if they need help, man, woman or child.