A young rapper travelled more than 1,000 miles to meet a pensioner he befriended while playing a word game online.

Spencer Sleyon, who lives in Harlem, New York, finally met with Rosalind Guttman, 81, in Florida after the pair formed an unlikely bond while playing more than 300 matches on the Words with Friends app.

The app lets people play a Scrabble-like game with Facebook friends or other randomly-paired competitors.

Their friendship started last summer when Ms Guttman used the word “phat”, which is hip hop slang for “excellent”, in a game after the two were randomly matched.

Recalling the moment to the Washington Post, Mr Sleyon said: “I was like, yo, how do you know that word?

“From day one I knew I was playing an old white woman”.

On Friday Mr Sleyon, whose stage name is Half Empty, finally travelled to meet Ms Guttmen at her retirement home in West Palm Beach.