A disabled British pensioner who was violently mugged outside his home has spoken of his amazement after well-wishers raised more than £220,000 (HK$2.6 million) for him to move house.
Alan Barnes, 67, who is 135cm tall and visually impaired, suffered a broken collarbone when he was attacked on his doorstep in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, last Sunday.
The attacker rifled through his pockets after shoving him to the ground and demanding money, but ran off when his frail victim called for help.
After reports of the attack, a local beautician, Katie Cutler, set up a fundraising page aiming to raise £500 - but donations quickly flooded in from 17,000 well-wishers as far afield as Canada, Holland and New Zealand.
Donations topped £220,000 on Sunday - 48 hours after the page was launched - as Barnes said he planned to use the money to buy a new house.
The pensioner, who has lived with disabilities all his life after his mother contracted German measles when she was pregnant, lived independently in the Low Fell area of Gateshead but was too afraid to return home after the attack.
“I’m not going back there, I decided that instant I wouldn’t go back to that house,” he said. “You would remember it every time you went past that footpath, wouldn’t you?”