A HORWICH teenager has become a worldwide viral hit after a photograph of him helping a 96-year-old man home from the shops was shared more than 50,000 times and viewed by people as far away as New Zealand and Canada.

Christian Trouesdale, aged 18, from Horwich, works part-time as a store assistant at Aldi in Horwich and had volunteered to help the pensioner travel the short distance home with his shopping yesterday evening.

He was spotted on his journey by 23-year-old Samantha-Jayne Brady, who was working in Jons Fish Bar, across the road from the Aldi store.

Moved by Christian's act of kindness, Ms Brady asked if she could take a photograph of the pair and uploaded it to Facebook.

The photograph has since become a worldwide internet hit with more than 50,000 shares in places including Dubai, Australia and the United States.

Mr Trouesdale, a student at Rivington and Blackrod college, said he has been completely blown away by the reaction and said he was just doing something that he would do on any day.

He said: "The reaction has been completely crazy, my facebook is just overflowing with messages, I can't even start to read them all.

"One woman posted on my wall from America saying that she wished there were more people in her country like me, it has been really amazing.

"I went back into Aldi this afternoon and a lady came up and hugged me and said she loved what I had done."

Mr Trouesdale said the elderly gentleman, who he believes to be 96-years old, had been in to the shop the week before but was worried about making the journey home in strong winds.

He said: "I asked my manager if it was ok to walk him home and he said that was the right thing to do, so I did.

"Then when the gentleman came in a week later, he asked for me and asked if I would do it again and I was very happy to.

"We had a good chat about everything from the General Election to the history of Horwich - he knew lots about everything."

The 18-year-old said he is normally quite a shy person and isn't quite sure how to handle his new found fame.

He added: "It is very strange because this is just something I would normally do, my parents have raised me to treat other people like you want to be treated yourself."

Ms Brady said she wanted to share the image and story because she feels that not enough positive stories about young people are shared around.

She added: "There are so many negative stories about young people but the positive ones just aren't seen on a large scale.

"I really didn't expect it to be seen by such a broad audience but the comments for Christian, his parents and for Aldi have been amazing."