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22nd July 2017
06:53pm BST
In excess of €80,000 has been raised to help Ciara Twomey, a nursing student from Bantry who was left with life-changing injuries while on holidays in Thailand.
Ciara, who attends Tralee Institute of Technology, lost the sight in her left eye after the glasses she was wearing shattered during a quad bike outing.
Now back home and being cared for in a Cork hospital, Ciara's family and friends thanked the thousands of people who had donated money to her fundraising pages:
"There are many local fundraising events ongoing, some we are not probably even fully aware of, thank you from the bottom of our hearts."In fact, the response to the Twomey family's appeal was so great that the fundraising website hosting Ciara's page crashed for more than eight hours. Supporters responded to the crash on the Fund & Seek website by opening a separate GoFundMe page, and with over €80,000 raised so far, the €150,000 target is looking increasingly achievable. Donation boxes have also been set up in many local businesses around Ciara's hometown of Bantry in order to facilitate older members of the community who wished to donate but were not comfortable doing so online. Although Ciara underwent eye surgery at a remote hospital in Thailand shortly after the incident, it is understood that she will require further reconstructive surgery here in Ireland.
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