With the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic bringing hardship to many people, one airport reached out to an aviation-loving Twitter user who reported "feeling rock bottom."

Dublin Airport in Ireland was one of 102k people from around the world who reached out to speak to Edmund O'Leary, who is living in Surrey in England but is originally from Clare. "Hi Edmund, you are not alone," it tweeted. "So many people are feeling exactly that way at the minute. Never forget that you are loved & there are people who care about you." The Twitter account also posted some photos of Boeing 747 planes and a picture of dawn in Dublin to console Edmund, saying that it was sending him "hugs from back home."

“We were very touched by Edmund’s tweet," Dublin Airport spokesman, Paul O’Kane, tells Lonely Planet. "We noticed from his posts that Edmund is Irish, that he used to fly, and that he loves Boeing 747 aircraft. On that basis, we responded with a personal message for Edmund and a couple of images – a vintage picture of an Aer Lingus Boeing 747 at Dublin Airport, and an image of dawn over Dublin Bay – in the hope that it might in some way give him a tiny lift. We chose the dawn image as the sun always rises, even after the darkest of nights.”

The exterior of Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport sent a kind tweet to a struggling man © mikroman6 via Getty Images

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Edmund revealed that the message had moved him. "I love jumbo jets," he said. "I was really touched by that tweet." He explained that he had been unemployed for 18 months, and is finding the pandemic hard as he is divorced and lives on his own. He also revealed that the response to his tweet and knowing that so many people care has left him "speechless."

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