EPSOM man Edmund O’Leary, a trustee of the borough-based mental health charity Love Me, Love My Mind, was left stunned over the last few days after his post about personal mental health garnered support and an outpouring of positive responses from hundreds of thousands of internet users on Twitter.

Amid the myriad problems that currently cast a shadow on individuals, the Epsom community and the world at large, Edmund’s mental wellbeing like so many others was impacted heavily in recent weeks and months.

Posting sometime close to midnight on Friday,. October 16, he wrote:

“I am not OK. Feeling rock-bottom. Please take a few seconds to say hello if you see this tweet. Thank you.”

Since then, over 100,000 Twitter users responded with uplifting messages of support and encouragement from around the world, while more than 300,000 hit the like button to add their support for the Epsom man.

The tweet in short became a testament to the solidarity and goodwill that can exist between people who do not even know each other, when we find others in difficult circumstances and in need of help.

Indeed, Edmund said in a recent interview with Andrew Neil (he has been inundated with media requests since the tweet went ‘viral’) that what happened had “restored my faith in humanity”.

In the aftermath, the Surrey Comet caught up with Edmund about what the response had meant to him:

“This has been absolutely horrid year for me. In normal times I suffer from depression and recently I was beginning to lose hope, so I thought I’d ask for some help,” he said.

“There are no words to fully describe how I feel about the response. The best thing I can say for now as I told The Times Radio is that yes, this has restored my hope.

“There are still a lot of good people out there,” Edmund added.

Amid the tens of thousands of responses, several in particular stood out for Edmund, including one from Dublin Airport that is particularly close to his heart:

“I love flying and travelling, and the industry is on its knees. Yet I had the most amazing tweet from the management and staff at Dublin Airport, who managed to find a photograph of an Air Lingus jumbo jet that I love, and the text was full of love and compassion, it really meant a lot.”

Love Me, Love My Mind is a “tiny charity that packs a punch” owing largely to its dedicated team of volunteers from Epsom and the wider community.

Nevertheless the charity find themselves struggling under the current circumstances as they continue their work.

“Despite all that’s going on, the Reverend Sue Bull went ahead with an online Mental Health Week and she does a remarkable job engaging with 69 people every Monday with a newsletter that has replaced the typical drop-in.”

Edmund is now searching for paid job that he said would be the “icing on the cake” of the last few days.