Almost £200,000 has been raised for an elderly man who is still selling ice lollies to pay his bills.

Fundraiser Joel Cervantes Macias, set up a GoFundMe page, when he saw 89-year-old Fidencio Sanchez struggling to push his popsicle (Paleta) cart in the heat through the Little Village area of Chicago last week.

Mr Macias said "it broke his heart" to see the old man and he pulled over to buy 20 ice lollies and gave him $50.

He took Mr Sanchez's picture and put it on Facebook and the emotional response it produced, led to him setting up the fundraising page, along with his friend Joe Loera.

On the GoFundMe page, Mr Macias explains that Mr Sanchez recently lost his daughter who used to look after him and his wife Eladia and has struggled to cope ever since.

He said that when the bills mounted up Mr Sanchez, who had been selling popsicles since 1993 but retired a few months earlier, had to return to work.

His wife was also helping with the cart but she has now become too ill.

Mr Macias set the target for the fundraiser at $2,000 but even he has been surprised at how the campaign has taken off.

Writing on Facebook with regular updates, Mr Macias confirmed that the story has gone viral.

He added that he has now sat down with the elderly couple and "things are coming together".

But Mr Macias revealed that Mr Sanchez still wants to keep his popsicle cart going even though he now has a healthy retirement fund.

He said Mr Sanchez told him: "I have the motivation, I have the strength and I feel better [working] than when I'm at the house."