Autistic boy receives thousands of birthday cards from strangers after mum's plea

• Video report by ITV News Correspondent Rupert Evelyn

An autistic boy has received thousands of birthday cards from complete strangers after his mum put out an appeal on social media.

Karen Jones asked people to help her son Ollie on his 15th birthday after she found him making cards for himself, fearful that they would be the only ones he got.

Karen, from Exeter, put an appeal on the city's community Facebook page and has been overwhelmed by the response from both neighbours and people thousands of miles away.

"It's emotional," Karen told ITV News Correspondent Rupert Evelyn.

"Ollie was here this morning before anyone else and opened some (of the cards) and was going 'wow, amazing, fantastic,'" she told ITV News.

She said: "For some autistic children, making and maintaining friendships is incredibly hard.

"He's got a couple of people at school and he does go to fab youth club, but out of school there's no one."

Local residents who had popped round to put cards through the Jones's letter box in time for Ollie's birthday tomorrow told ITV News: "I've worked with children all my life, I've got my own children and I think when they have a little problem, you try and help them."