Mum hopes royal photo can pay for university

The picture everyone wanted...

A mother who snapped a lucky photograph of four smiling royals is hoping its sale will help her fund her daughter's university education.

Karen Anvil, 39, from Watlington in Norfolk captured a beaming Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Sandringham.

The image, which was posted on Twitter, was liked almost 4,000 times and stoked mainstream media interest.

Ms Anvil told the BBC reaction to the picture has been "bizarre and bonkers".

Ms Anvil and her 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, have been to spot the Royals at their annual Christmas Day service a couple of times before.

She said that, while suffering from an illness last year, she promised her daughter they would go to St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham this Christmas.

She said: "Sky News was on and we were looking at the crowds. My daughter said 'I'd love to do that'.

"'I said 'next year, when I'm better we'll go'. And so I took her."

Ms Anvil admitted she had a "fan-girl" moment while with her daughter Rachel, 17

• Meghan joins royals for Christmas service

• Watch - Royal Family attend Christmas service

• Terror attack cities praised by Queen

Asked how she got the Royals to look at the camera and capture the shot every photographer dreamt of, Ms Anvil admitted her secret was attracting their attention,

"I'm just very bubbly by nature and I was with my daughter and I got a bit excitable, I suppose.

"I was just sort of shouting and I just went 'Merry Christmas!' like an idiot. I was fan-girling.

"That's all I said and got them to look."

You might also like

• A dog nativity

• Scotland's first Christmas day baby

• 'I've invited a stranger for Christmas'

Ms Anvil posted the image on Twitter at about 11:00 GMT and got thousands of likes. Her previous record was just five likes.

Four hours later she was still receiving messages asking for permission to use the picture - and advice from other Twitter users telling her to negotiate a price.

She said: "At first I said oh yeah sure. Have the photo. I know nothing about that."

But soon afterwards she was flooded with suggestions to copyright the photograph and earn some Christmas Day cash.

"The thing is - and I hate to play the single mum card - I'm a single parent, I work two jobs, which I'm proud of and I've always worked.

"Now I want to save money for my daughter for uni and if I can do that, and can get that opportunity that's amazing."

Additional reporting by UGC and Social News