Precious family photos that had been gathering dust on a shelf in a community club for nearly a decade have been reunited with their owner after a social media campaign.
The album, showing Billie Hallard, who is now 16, taking part in dance contests across Yorkshire, was mislaid at The Hunslet Club, in Hillidge Road, Hunslet, when she danced at an event there several years ago.
But after the club’s fundraising officer Jason Slack found the old album, which Billies’s family thought had been lost forever, he used Twitter and Facebook to post one of the pictures online in a bid to track the dancer down.
After it was shared and retweeted dozens of times, around 21,500 people are thought to have seen the picture online, before an eagle-eyed friend of Billies’s mother spotted them and got in touch.
Billie, who lives in Leeds, said: “It is so nice to have these back. Thank you so much to the Hunslet Club for not throwing them away and finding me.
“These are pictures we’d otherwise have never got back.”
The teenager, who is currently studying for her A levels, was reunited with the album at the club this week.
Jason added: “The Hunslet Club is well used as a venue for wedding receptions, parties and functions so I thought somebody must know who left this here at such an event.
“It impresses me greatly that, thanks to the kindness of people in Leeds sharing an image on Facebook and Twitter, we’ve brought about a happy ending to this lost and found story.”
The Hunslet Club, which has more than 2,000 members, won trophies for Outstanding Community Sports Club and Best Youth Club at the Leeds Sports Awards last week.
Visit www.hunsletclub.org.uk for further information.