It started with a on the page of Naomi Fitzgerald De Grave - a Sydney-based model and stylist. She kick-started a fundraising campaign for an elderly homeless man known as Ned (Necat Güler) whom she had known for two years.
When De Grave hadn't seen Ned for a week around his usual spot in Hyde Park in Sydney, she was worried.
Asking around among other homeless residents of the park, she located him laying under a tree where he said he had not eaten in three weeks and had not been able to move for eight days. He was also severely dehydrated - which she didn’t realised at the time.
The next day, after gale-force winds struck the city, De Grave wanted to check on him again and found him in very bad shape at the same spot.
Ned Source: Facebook
"I realised that his breathing was very shallow and I found out he hadn't moved in eight days... So off to St Vincent's [hospital] we went," Ms De Grave wrote on Facebook.
She took him to hospital and then launched an online to fund his medical needs.
The campaign has already surpassed it's original target of $5,000 and is now at over $10,000.
After her post in social media about Ned, Turkish social media sites in Australia shared the story and support poured in for De Grave's campaign.
“For all of those who have helped along the way, the Turkish community and the local and national community, no words can describe the thanks and gratitude I have for the out pouring of support,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Taylan Sadıkoğlu was one of the supporters who visited Ned in hospital. He asked Ned about his family to notify them.
"He didn’t want to talk about them," Sadıkoğlu tells SBS Turkish.
The Turkish community's social media campaign to locate Ned’s family worked.
Ned's story was shared on the popular Facebook page a tribute page created in honour of the woman of the same name - another Turkish homeless person, who has become something a beloved local identity in Melbourne.
One man, Turhan Dikman, from Turkey replied to the post about Ned:
Turhan Dikmen, the nephew of Sydney-based homeless man Necat Güler (also known as Ned) responded to a viral post on a popular Turkish-Australian Facebook page Source: Facebook - Cemile Hayranlari
"I am very excited," Dikman wrote in Turkish.
"The information you provide here about Necat Güler in Australia is my uncle.
"He told his family not to try to find him many years ago and left.
"What we can do, how we can reach him? I look forward your reply."
Mr Dikmen, tells SBS Turkish that his family in Turkey is in now touch with the Turkish Consulate in Sydney.
Dikmen said his uncle Ned underwent a successful operation on Wednesday.
Dikmen says he is hoping to get more information about his uncle this Monday.
Naomi Fitzgerald De Grave believes Ned has been living rough for over 10 years. He is currently in the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick and has multiple fractures - including a broken back from the T12-L5 vertebrae.
Nen in Hyde Park in Sydney Source: Facebook
There were reportedly so many visitors that the hospital has forced to stop people visiting Ned while he recovers.
