A Melbourne woman who was reunited via Facebook with a stranger who helped her after a motorbike crash has been stunned by an avalanche of interest, but has protected the man's identity.
Sophie Moon and her sisters Kate and Lena created an imaginary 'event' on the social networking site, each inviting around 300 friends on the anniversary of the accident in Melbourne's inner city.
The three women appealed for their friends' help finding the man who comforted Sophie as she waited, trapped under a car, for an ambulance to arrive.
The trio were unprepared for the story's extraordinary popularity. Within 48 hours, the 'invite' had been sent to over 60,000 people, with over 3,000 replying they would 'attend'. The number had risen to almost 5,000 at the time of writing.
On Monday, the mystery man – seen in video footage of Ms Moon's rescue wearing a white t-shirt and black cowboy boots – was identified, as it emerged that he was a friend of one of her own schoolmates.
“It was one degree of separation,” Ms Moon told SBS.
There was an outpouring of emotion on the event page, with hundreds of well-wishers congratulating Ms Moon, and the man – to whom many referred as 'The Dude'.
There was also speculation of romance, and of movie deals.
However, Ms Moon says the story was never as dramatic as the hundreds of posts and media attention would suggest.
“What was originally meant to be just an offer of a beer has been blown way out of proportion',” she said.
Ms Moon has spoken to the man once, and says they have decided to meet for the now-infamous beer she offered on Facebook. He prefers to remain anonymous, and Ms Moon also protected his privacy by not revealing his profession.
Both were overwhelmed by the amount of interest the story had stirred, she said. Some posters had questioned whether it was a viral advertising campaign, she added.
Ms Moon was worried some 'invitees' may still show up for the 'event',w hich she had listed as occurring on December 31, on the corner of Melbourne's Princes and Lygon Streets.
Despite the heart-warming outcome of her social media experiment, Ms Moon says she won't be singing Facebook's praises.
“I won't be putting on a Facebook t-shirt and dancing around and telling people how good it is,” she said.
“But I think it has its uses, and I think connecting people isone of them,” she added.
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