Gym gives Syrian refugee free lifetime membership after viral photo shows him staring through window

A Syrian refugee has been given a lifetime membership at a gym in Turkey after a photo of him gazing through the window at fitness equipment went viral.

Mohammed Khaled, 12, who works as a shoe shiner in Adiyaman in Turkey’s south, was photographed outside the gym with his footstool strapped to his back, The Independent reports.

But after the image went viral, gym owner Engin Dogan had to track the boy down.

He then offered Mohammed an all-access pass to the facility.

The 12-year-old told Turkish news agency Anadolu said the gym’s owners found him and helped him.

“I had always dreamed of losing weight and now I believe I can do that by working out,” Mohammed said.

Mustafa Kucukkaya, one of the gym’s owners, told Turkish newspaper Sabah, he was “very touched” and felt the gym was “doing something very good”.

“It affected me very much because we came from nothing and we did not have such a gym in our time,” he said.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, around 3.3 million Syrian refugees are registered to be living in Turkey.