We cannot deny the power of Facebook. It has the ability to turn a personal post, viral, but it can also be the perfect forum to request help when finding something of value that has been lost.

Yesterday we shared the story on the search for a replica giraffe toy that was no longer made. Since sharing this post on the Mums Lounge Facebook page, we have had our community of mums offer to look at their own giraffe toys. If you have the exact same toy, please comment on our Facebook post as Claire and Gail are looking to have spares of this particular toy.

Facebook has helped another young lady reclaim something precious that she believed was lost.

Tess Newall, from Scotland, wore a 147 year old wedding dress for her wedding in June 2016. The dress had been passed through the generations and was worn by Tess’s great, great grandmother on her wedding day back in 1870.

After the wedding, Tess took it to Kleen Cleaners in Edinburgh to get dry cleaned, but the shop went out of business and the dress wasn’t returned.

Tess went on Facebook to share her distress and ask for help on the whereabouts of the wedding dress.

“I have just found out that the dry cleaners have lost my much loved wedding dress,” she wrote in a Facebook post, “It was made by my Great Great Granny in 1870 (I altered the top) and I wore it in June 2016. Kleen Cleaners in Edinburgh used to be the best but recently fell into crooked hands and have gone into liquidation,” she said. “It seems that the dress was taken to be sold so it could be winging its way anywhere.”

Tess’s Facebook post went viral and was shared over 301k times! The post attracted the attention of the landlord of the building where the drycleaners had occupied. When searching the premises he came across a “crumpled heap of antique lace on the floor,” which was the antique wedding dress.

The lesson from these remarkable stories on Facebook is you just never know who will read your post and what can come from asking for a little help on the internet.