An e-mail campaign to raise awareness about Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old girl who has been abducted in Portugal, has flicked around the globe in a matter of days, reaching as far as Kazakhstan, Kuala Lumpur and Azerbaijan.

Messages of support have poured in from all around the world to the original sender Pat Perkins, a friend of Madeleine’s grandmother, who first sent the e-mail to just over 50 people a week ago in the hope that a recipient may recognise Madeleine and be able to offer assistance to police.

“Whether you are in the UK, Portugal, Europe or beyond, please forward to all your family, friends, colleagues and business associates,” Ms Perkins, who works as a project manager for the NHS in Merseyside, wrote.

“The internet can be a powerful tool in finding Maddy, who is so loved and missed by us all.

“Let's use it positively.”

Since then the e-mail, which contained a picture of Madeleine on a tennis court and a link to the website bringmadeleinehome.com, has criss-crossed the globe, with everyone from a 15-year-old German boy to the manager of a racing club in Dubai offering their support.

Claire, who runs an estate agent on the Aegean coast in Turkey, replied: “We’ve removed some of the brochures from the windows in our agency and replaced them with pictures of Madeleine. It’s only a small act and you don’t know us however we wanted you to know you have our love and support.”

Grace De Angelis-Petria, from Geneva, Switzerland, wrote: “We have been heartbroken since we heard the news. We’re doing what we can by sending the e-mail to the world and putting posters up in elevators.”

Claire Walker, who manages the Dubai Racing Club, said: “I got your e-mail from a friend in Singapore. I have sent it to all my contacts and hope it will be widely distributed. Wishing you hope and faith.”

Ms Perkins, who has known Madeleine’s grandmother, Sue Healy, for 30 years, said that she had sent the e-mail out of “desperation” because she felt "so helpless" when Madeleine disappeared from the resort in which her family was staying in the Algarve 11 days ago.

“We just wanted to get the information out as soon as possible and we’re overwhelmed by the replies. My inbox has now crashed several times,” she told Times Online.

She said that messages of support had arrived from, among other countries, Holland, Australia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Malaysia and Singapore.

Chris Lake, editor of e-consultancy, an internet research group, said: “These kinds e-mail campaigns have the potential to reach millions in a very short space of time. Generally whether they work depends on the incentives they provide for forwarding the e-mail on. Here, obviously, the incentive is enormous.”

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge