A MUM-of-four has been overwhelmed by the response to her Facebook challenge.

Kelly Coxhead made a Valentine’s Day plea after her fiance agreed to marry her if she was able to get a million friends on on the social networking site.

Within days of the Adver breaking the story on Tuesday, more than 26,000 people have joined a Facebook group calling for Paul Mapplethorpe, 38, to finally wed 32-year-old Kelly.

Paul has told his bride-to-be, who he has been engaged to for 10 years, that if she can get one million people to join the Facebook group she can set the date of her choice, November 11, 2011, for their wedding.

And all she needs is another 974,000 members and there is a plea on the page saying ‘I need one million people to join for Paul to marry me c’mon guys help me lol’.

Dinner lady Kelly, of Liden, said: “This has gone totally beyond what I ever imagined. I’m totally shocked I cannot believe a story which started out as a joke has gone so far. It’s just gone mental.

“I’m laughing and joking about it but I don’t know what to do as I’m a 32-year-old housewife. We just keep laughing, it’s all we can do. ”

Since last week the couple have featured on television, national radio stations and their story has appeared in national newspapers such as The Mirror, The Sun and The Daily Mail.

“ITV’s Daybreak has been in touch and we ‘ve been on the local BBC news programme Points West, but I missed that on TV as I had to do a live interview for BBC Radio 5,” said Kelly.

“I’ve had loads of telephone calls including BBC Radio Wiltshire, and Heart Radio. The only one I’ve not had is Radio One. We’ve also been on the Digital Spy website and were even mentioned by Phillip Schofield on This Morning.”

The story has gone global with Facebook messages from around the world including Argentina, Brazil, Bosnia, Italy, Switzerland and America.

“We’ve had the offer of a honeymoon from someone in Rio de Janeiro and we haven’t even got passports,” said Kelly.

“And someone in Cumbria and Manchester offered us photography and someone’s offered us hair pieces. We’ve had all kinds of offers but the whole point of the story is about how I want a million friends to join my Facebook group. It’s not about free weddings. We are perfectly capable of paying for a wedding. I don’t want people to think we did this to get a free wedding.”

Mechanic Paul said it the whole thing had gone spiralling out of control.

“If Kelly gets one million people to join her group with the way it’s been it won’t take long,” he said.

“Say 200 people join and they each invite 100 friends and they invite another 100, so it’s growing rapidly. I don’t mind. Kell’s getting all the phone calls and an American television station has even approached her. It’s really took off.”

To join the group log on to www.facebook.com