He came out as gay in a whole-school assembly. Four years later, he received this email.

In 2010, David Weston was a teacher at Watford Grammar School for Boys in Hertfordshire, England.

During an assembly that year, Weston stood up in front of all 1200 boys at the school and told them he was a gay man.

And, four years later, he received a letter from a former student which made him realise just what a big deal it was.

He tweeted:

I came out as a gay teacher in a whole-school assembly in 2010. Today, 4 years later, I just received this email. Wow pic.twitter.com/Wdgzo4n3lf

— David Weston (@informed_edu) August 12, 2014

The letter has been retweeted over 4000 times.

David spoke to the Daily Mail about his decision to come out in front of the school community:

‘I decided to do an assembly on homophobic language and why some people are gay. That was the moment where I said “as some of you already know, I’m due to be civil partnered to my boyfriend later this year. I want to talk to you about what a Civil Partnership is, how legislation has changed, and about the words we use to talk about LGBT issues’

David began working at Watford Grammar in 2003 and says that he received a positive, if quiet, reaction to his assembly.

‘A couple of teachers and students told me how much they’d enjoy it and appreciated me ‘being brave’. Most students had no reaction at all, or maybe occasionally asked about how my partner was. There was no negative reaction at all from anyone, including parents.’

It just goes to show that we all have the power to affect the lives of those around us, even if we don’t understand it at the time.

Have you ever waited a long time to say ‘thank you’ to someone?