Students at the University of Bristol have raised £1,500 for a cleaner to visit his family in Jamaica.
“He is the epitome of happiness,”says the JustGiving page where more than 230 supporters donated money to pay for Herman Gordon and his wife to visit family in the Caribbean.
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“You have brightened many of our days and we want you to know that we love and appreciate you,” students wrote.
Gordon came to the UK at the age of 15 in 1967 as part of the Windrush generation, and has worked at the university for nearly 12 years. He told the BBC that he understood the pressures that university students face.
“I know that these students are studying. You don’t want any negative vibes around them,” Gordon said.
The fundraising effort was launched after a student posted a message on a Facebook group about “the jolliest man I have ever met”, saying: “if you ever wanna reason to smile, go talk to him for a minute or two.”
Within just five days, the students had almost reached their target.
Gordon says he had never said anything about wanting to go away, so receiving the money was “out of the blue”.
Asked about his reaction, he said: “I don’t know if you know that song, ‘Many a tear has to fall/But it’s all in the game.’ That’s what happened. A lot of tears.”