A FORMER serviceman has become a social media sensation after being photographed selling poppies to motorists stuck in traffic due to the floods.

John Mason, president of the Powick and Callow End branch of the Royal British Legion, showed true initiative by going from vehicle to vehicle to collect money for this year’s Poppy Appeal.

However, the RAF veteran said he had a “little run in with the police” while he was out on the road in Powick on Monday morning, and was told he couldn’t continue without a hi-vis jacket.

“Somebody opened a car window and passed me a hi-vis jacket and the policeman helped me put it on,” he told the BBC.

Mr Mason, of Powick and believed to be 85, said a neighbour knocked on his door and gave him the idea to try his luck in the traffic jams.

“I went out there for about an hour and later I was getting tired. I can’t walk very far these days, so it’s easier to stand still and let the customers come to you if you can.”

He said he’d been out for about half an hour when a police officer approached him on a motorbike.

“[They] said it was dangerous for me to stand in the road, I shouldn’t be doing it and he could not allow it, really.”

However, donned in his hi-vis, Mr Mason, also Worcester area chairman for the Royal Air Forces Association, was able to continue for at least another hour.

“I carried on until I was getting a bit tired and I need to have a stretch of my legs.”

Speaking to BBC Hereford and Worcester’s Malcolm Boyden, the veteran said he planned to go out again that afternoon “when I get my breath back”.

Referring to the generosity of the motorists, he said “they are marvellous”.

“It’s so heartening the way that people respond to the Poppy Appeal,” he added, having been a poppy seller for 21 years.

Truck driver Craig Allington posted photos and a video of Mr Mason on Facebook on Monday which has since been shared over 1,000 times.