Devon mother's birthday plea for son goes viral Published duration 28 April 2015

media caption Molly-Mole Povey, from Newton Abbot, in Devon pleaded on Facebook for people to wish her son Roman a happy birthday

A mother who said her 11-year-old son had no friends and pleaded on Facebook for people to wish him happy birthday says he has received hundreds of cards from around the world.

Molly-Mole Povey, from Newton Abbot, in Devon, was upset when her son Roman said he had no friends at school.

After her Facebook post went viral, more than 200 cards have arrived from as far away as Australia.

Mrs Povey said: "The compassion shown has been truly inspiring."

She said that she had written the post two weeks before her "beautiful special boy" turns 11 on Wednesday.

image caption Molly-Mole Povey said she was prompted to post a message on Facebook by her "heart-break" over her son Roman

image caption Messages of birthday goodwill are continuing to arrive for Roman

She said Roman was "a lovely adorable boy with difficulties".

"I was just hoping a couple of school people might give him a card, but it went viral with people offering to send him cards from all over the world," she said.

"Roman doesn't have any friends and often cries himself to sleep because of this.

"I cannot express how heart-breaking these past few years have been seeing my beautiful boy so upset, so often."

She said on Facebook that any cards and well-wishes for his birthday "would mean the world to him to feel special for once and popular".

Her post has received more than 400 likes and responses from around the world including Dubai, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Egypt and Germany - and they are still arriving.

"Within 12 hours my post had been shared around the world from friends to their friends and beyond," she said.

"The moment I realised it had gone global was when someone in Uganda messaged me and asked if they could send my son Roman a birthday card.

"It's been amazing, I'm overwhelmed with people's kindness."

Roman will see the cards on Wednesday when he has a family celebration at his home.