Man's response to wrong number text helps raise $20k for his son's cancer treatment

  • 13/03/2018
The original accidental text.
The original accidental text. Photo credit: Twitter/ Mandie Miller

A man's creative response to a text not meant for him has gone viral, raising over US$15,000 (NZ$20,000) for his son's cancer treatment in the process.

Tony Wood was at home with his children when he received images of a girl he didn't know wearing a formal dress asking for feedback on whether it looked good, The Daily Mail reports.

The sender, student Sydney Uselton, had intended to send them to a friend, but contacted the middle-aged father-of-six instead.

Knowing the pressure young girls feel to look good Mr Wood wanted Ms Uselton to know it was a nice dress.

He feared a picture of him would not send a great message so decided the best approach would be to get the children involved.

"My wife wasn't home so I couldn't get her opinion and I assumed that the children thumbs upping her would accomplish that substantially better than some overweight middle aged bald guy," he told the Daily Mail.

Ms Uselton's friend put a screenshot of the message on Twitter where it quickly went viral.

But one child wasn't in the photo, four year old Kaizler who was in hospital receiving treatment for leukaemia.

Seeing the traction of the screenshots online Mr Wood replied to the tweet and explained why Kaizler was missing, linking their Facebook page "Prayer's for Kaizler" in the process.

Social media users quickly found their way to the page and from there a GoFundMe set up in Kaizler's name.

They donated in droves bringing the total raised to over $30,000, three times the page's original goal.

Mr Wood was shocked by the sudden internet fame, posting thanks to internet users on his Facebook page.

"It's a bigger blessing than anyone could ever know," he said. 

Newshub.