The dad of an autistic girl says he was "overwhelmed" when strangers went to his daughter's birthday party after responding to an online appeal.
Remi, 5, was left heartbroken when only two people showed up to her party at the Eden Play Centre in Abertillery, Wales, and asked her mum: "where are all of my friends?"
Her dad, PJ Robins, told Wales Online : "We'd done some invites for a party for Remi, not many – just 10 little friends."
Two guests got in touch on the day to say they couldn't make it through illness – but others hadn't RSVPed at all.
"It was really very sad that none of them had bothered to respond really, said PJ.
"One of the things with the autistic spectrum is that last minute changes are terribly distressing, especially to Remi.
"We'd already told her about the party and that we'd invited her friends so she was expecting her friends to be there.
"At one point she turned around and said 'Mummy, where are all of my friends?' and that was like a knife in the heart."
PJ, who moved to Abertillery in 2017 with Remi's mum Becki, then posted on a local community group on Facebook , asking for people to drop by.
In his post, he said: "Please, if anybody has some free time and has a child around my daughter's age – would you be willing to help us make her party a day to remember.
"We don't expect anything, not cards or gifts, the part is all paid for and there's plenty of food, we just want some children to come help our little girl celebrate."
And the response was incredible – around 14 children and parents turned up and stayed at the party, and a number of random people turned up to wish Remi a "happy birthday" after seeing the post.
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