Teenage girl accidentally sends dress picture to stranger whose response went viral

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When teenager Sydney accidentally sent a picture of herself trying on a dress to the wrong number, she had no idea she would end up helping raise over $33,000 (£23,700) for a child suffering from leukaemia.

Shopping for a dress for a school formal event, Sydney took two pictures to send to a friend for their opinion.

However she accidentally sent the photos to the wrong number, which turned out to be a man called Tony Wood who lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Father-of-six Wood was unsure how best to respond.

“Society puts a lot of pressure on these young women to have a certain look and a certain body build,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“We try to teach our children to be themselves and not worry about what others think... Even with that, my young daughters already express a desire to ‘fit in’ and I figured this young lady might need that reassurance.”

So Wood replied to Sydney saying: “I believe this message was intended for someone else. My wife isn’t home, so I couldn’t get her opinion, but the kids and I think you look stunning in your dress! You should definitely go with that one!”

He also sent a picture of five of his children giving Sydney the thumbs-up.

“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,” Wood explained.

The exchange was posted on Twitter by Sydney friend, Mandi Miller, and it quickly went viral.

“I got a message from some random number the other day with a couple pictures of a young lady in a dress,” Wood wrote on Facebook.

“I decided, ‘Let's make this person’s day.’ So I had the kids thumbs up her and told her she looked stunning in her dress. Now, all of the sudden, my kids are Twitter famous! Pretty cool!”

Wood also shared an amusing video of his children’s reaction to being told they’d gone viral on the social network too.

However, the story then took a surprising turn when some Twitter users joined the Facebook group for Wood’s sixth child who was absent from the picture: four-year-old Kaizler wasn’t at home because he was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy for his leukaemia.

The Woods had set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Kaizler’s treatment in December 2015, but when the page was posted on Twitter, donations suddenly came pouring in from strangers.

The parents had originally hoped to raise $10,000 (£7,200), but the total currently stands at over $33,000 (£23,700) thanks to donations from over 1,200 people.

In response to a Twitter request, Wood then shared a picture of Kaizler giving a thumbs-up too.

“It’s a bigger blessing than anyone could ever know,” he said.