A London lifeboat volunteer was stunned when a photo he posted on Twitter was retweeted 25,000 times around the world reaching Lapland, Barbados and Korea.
Matt Leat was amazed by the “phenomenal response” to the shot of his crew mates aboard a lifeboat, shrouded in mist by Tower Bridge with various famous faces joining in on the action.
Celebrities such as Gaby Logan and Kirstie Allsopp, and presenter Dave Berry all did their bit by retweeting.
Mr Leat uploaded the atmospheric picture over the weekend from the RNLI station where he works, near Waterloo.
He tweeted: “We have been set a challenge to see how far this picture can travel on twitter - A RT is easy and costs nothing!”
By Tuesday (March 25), the photo had been retweeted 24,421 times and has been favourited by 1,858 people.
Retweets have popped up as far afield as Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Mr Leat said: “My iphone hasn’t been able to keep up with the twitter alerts due to the phenomenal response.
“When I posted the photo I thought it might get a couple of hundred retweets but I’m staggered at how popular it has proved in just a couple of days.
“It taken by Glenn Julius, an RNLI volunteer based at Lymington lifeboat station, who was working in London for the day.
“The RNLI isn’t funded by government, we rely on public donations to operate so anything that raises awareness of our charity is a good thing.”
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