A restaurant waiter has been offered a job as a nurse after an image of him feeding a disabled woman went viral.

Joe Thomas, who has been working at a pancake diner for more than a decade, was pictured wiping the mouth of a customer who suffers from Huntington’s disease.

The 43-year-old said he wanted to help out her husband, a regular customer, who he often sees feeding her while his own serving goes cold.

“I didn’t really offer. I just started doing it,”said Mr Thomas, speaking to CBS News.

“I told the gentleman to ‘sit down, eat your food. I got her’.”

“I really treat people like I want to be treated. If I get to be that age and something happened to me I would want someone to help me out.”

Customer Keshia Dotson took the picture, in the IHOP restaurant in Springfield in Illinois, as he lightly dabbed the woman’s mouth.

“She was coughing and then would gag really loud almost like she was choking,” said Ms Dotson, who posted the image on IHOP's Facebook page on Saturday.

“The first time she did it almost the entire restaurant went silent and he cracked a joke and reduced the tension. It wasn’t long after that that we noticed him sitting down with her and helping feed her and once she was done get her all cleaned up.”

Fellow employee Amanda Williams said he “does this every time” and was an “awesome co-worker”.