Online Appeal Raises £5,000 For 91-Year-Old Woman Whose Funeral Savings Were Robbed By Thugs

An online campaign has raised almost £5,000 for a 91-year-old Belfast woman whose savings were robbed by thugs. Lilly O'Hara had saved the sum to cover her funeral expenses when she passes away but was cruelly robbed of her life savings when thieves targeted her home in Lisburn. Mrs O'Hara's family run a takeaway restaurant in the area and one of the workers decided to set up an online fundraising page in the hope of recovering some of her lost money and "bring a smile back to Lilly this Christmas". The response to the appeal has been described as "overwhelming", with over 500 supporters donating £5,000 to the cause since the page was set up just over a day ago. Mr O'Hara told the Belfast Telegraph that his mother was still devastated by the burglary but was reassured by the knowledge that there were still "good people out there". "Our family is traumatised and hopefully someone out there will respond and give that little missing piece of the jigsaw of information needed to catch these people. One minute my mother is OK and the next she's away with it, crying and getting upset. But she doesn't want to leave the house that she's lived in for 60 years." A substantial reward has now been offered for information relating to the burglary at Lilly's home on the Low Road last week.