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Go Fund Me

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Fyre Festival has re-emerged in the public eye thanks to a duo of competing documentaries on the tropical island disaster. 

Billed as an epic Bahamas getaway with A-List acts, luxury accommodation and famous attendees, tickets were sold for tens of thousands. 

Instead of being met with 5-star camping experiences, gourmet food, and all-star music acts, the attendees arrived to the island to find dilapidated tents, cheese sandwiches and a mass of cancelled acts. 

Before the doomed festival was cancelled, thousands of attendees were flown out, and rather than be brought straight to the unfinished campsite, many were diverted to a restaurant and beach bar called The Exuma Point Resort, Bar & Grille, who had been contracted to host the party goers. 

The restaurant had also fed and watered staff at Fyre Festival for weeks leading up to the event. 

However, the owners of the restaurant did not receive a pre-payment for the costs the party would involve, and have never received their promised wage.  

Facebook / Maryann Rolle

In the Netflix documentary detailing how the events leading up to Fyre Festival unfolded, Maryann Rolle, who owns the venue, told filmmakers that she sunk $50,000 of her own money into the event in order to cover costs and pay the additional staff whp had to be brought in to meet the demands. 

On social media, many viewers of the doc demanded that Maryann be paid – and correspondingly, Maryann set up a GoFundMe to help get herself out of the mess the festival had made. 

'It has been an unforgettable experience catering to the organisers of Fyre Festival. Back in April 2017 I pushed myself to the limit catering no less than a 1000 meals per day,' she wrote in a heartfelt description.

'Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all prepared and delivered by Exuma Point to Coco Plum Beach and Roker’s Point where the main events were scheduled to take place. Organizers would also visit my Exuma Point location to enjoy the prepared meals.'

'Fyre Fest organizers were also checked into all the rooms at Exuma Point Resort.'

'As I make this plea it’s hard to believe and embarrassing to admit that I was not paid…I was left in a big hole! My life was changed forever, and my credit was ruined by Fyre Fest.'

The goal of $123,000 was surpassed, reaching a whopping $128,653  in just seven days. 

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The victims of a brutal attack in Portlaoise have started a GoFundMe appeal to the public for help with dental and medical expenses.

The attack, believed to be homophobically motivated, was orchestrated by four men, who beat the victims using hurley sticks.

Collie McQuillan and his Brazilian-born husband Gui Aquino Teixeira McQuillan were walking home from a family barbecue when the savage violence occurred. 

 

A post shared by Gui A. McQuillan (@guiiaquino) on

Gardaí confirmed that they are investigating the incident.

In the mean time, Collie and his husband have been dealing with their injuries, with Collie starting a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the costs. 

'I was savagely attacked by a group of people which cause extensive damages to my face and jaw and teeth. The attack was mindless and totally unprovoked,' Collie wrote in his Go Fund Me bio.  

'Medical expenses are mounting up and the overall cost of repairing the damage is more then unaffordable to myself. I have an upper and lower broken jaw. My lower jaw line has splintered bone and i have lost 2 teeth and another 2 teeth have been broken in half. Due to the impact there is nerve damage to my teeth and will require root canals to save them.'

'The cost of both medical and dental repairs is about 8000 euro im hoping to raise at least half of this amount. Please if you can help with any donation at all nothing is too small it would me the world to me as this has been a huge knock to my confidence and has cause a lot of emotional stress and physical pain.'

Prominent members of Ireland's LGBTQA+ community, such as James Kavanagh, have shared the pages, which has now smashed it's €8,000 goal and stands at over €10,000. 

'This hurts my heart. Homophobia is still rampant in parts of this country,' James wrote on his Twitter page. 

Feature image: Instagram / Collie Aquino McQuillan

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GoFundMe has now become the only major peer-to-peer fundraising platform in Ireland that does not charge a platform fee, which GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon calls a  'win-win move'.

This development is quite exciting considering the millions of euro that have been donated to worthy causes on GoFundMe Ireland. 

Recently, nearly €80,000 was raised by Emmet Kavanagh, who runs Irish Liverpool Reds Facebook page, to support the family of Sean Cox. Sean was stabbed outside Anfield before the Champions League match against Roma.

The outpouring of support is astounding, and Sean's life is one of many that have been affected by the fundraising platform.

“We’ve been amazed by the generosity of people in Ireland since we launched here," noted GoFundMe's CEO.

He added, "We’re looking forward to seeing more people giving and getting the help they need.”

Indeed, the generosity of the Irish public has been overwhelming, as approximately one in every 15 people Ireland have made a donation through GoFundMe.

GoFundMe Ireland launched two years ago, and the elimination of a platform fee marks its 10,000th campaign. 

This zero percent platform fee applies to new campaigns for personal causes. GoFundMe's users will still be charged an industry standard payment processing fee of 2.5 percent plus 25 cents.

The company will now cover customer service, safety precautions, and technology costs with voluntary tips from donors. This pricing change has been successfully launched in the US, UK, and Canada as well.

“As we’ve rolled this new model out in the US, we've had a huge amount of positive feedback from our community," Rob said, "It’s a win-win move, and we think people in Ireland will recognise the outstanding service we provide – and now we’re offering that service for free."

We are ecstatic to hear that GoFundMe is becoming more accessible by eliminating its platform fee.

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Zayn Malik has encountered some major backlash from fans online this week.

Over the weekend, the Pillow Talk singer asked his fans for help raising money for life-saving cancer treatment for his mother’s best friend.

Putting the call out to his 21.8 million followers, the star tweeted a link to a GoFundMe page that had been set up in aid of the cause.

'This is my Mum’s best friend,' he said.

'Please help in any way possible.'

The page has raised £15,363 of a £120,000 goal for lung cancer treatment.

However the plea caused major backlash among his fans, who felt that the platinum-selling superstar could afford to provide his mother's best friend with the funds for the treatment. 

'He could have completely paid for it, he doesn’t need our help. He’s filthy rich,' said one Twitter user.

'Sorry, but gofundme was started for poor people to get help. He's taking undue advantage of his stardom to mobilize his fan base to pay for something he can easily afford on his own,' said another. (sic)

Ayasha Butt, who the fund is in aid of, has updated the GoFundMe page in response to the haters.

'I'm so pleased that you genuine peeps are still donating and helping my cause. I've had a fabulous response to my page and posts, from both friends and strangers,but this response is tinged with sadness for me.

'I asked my "nephew" Zayn Malik to drum up some publicity for me, by way of hilightning my page and illness via Twitter. This has had an adverse effect for him as the spiteful trolls are attacking him for his kindness.' (sic)

'Never, ever would I ask him for financial help in any way, and I wouldn't want it any other way. My request was for him to enlighten the public of my sad plight and he did exactly as I asked. So come on all you trolls, give him a break please and let's just get on with the fundraising.'

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18-year-old Shauntelle Tynan from Carlow made a heart-wrenching plea via viral video for funding for her rare form of cancer, and in 36 hours the remaining funding was raised.

The total came to €675,155, above and beyond the necessary €500,000.

Shan was diagnosed with multi-system Langheran’s cell histiocytosis in May 2015, and since then, her community has been funding her specialist treatment at theTexas Children’s Hospital. 

In the video, which has been viewed over 50,000 times, the teen explained how her disorder is unable to be treated in the EU and Ireland due to a lack of knowledge about the type of cancer, so she must seek help from a specialist in Texas, which means she does not qualify for the HSE’s Treatment Abroad Scheme.

The Carlow teen took to Facebook to profusely thank everyone who has donated to her cause, which may very well save her life. 

"The last 38 hours has been a place of love and the people of Ireland have truly came together to help me get better and for that I'm truly thankful. There has been few haters but millions of lovers and each person showing positivity helps us through each day and we are truly over the moon," she said. 

"The good always outshines the bad and I now have a true chance at beating this and it is all down to all who shared, commented and donated. I am so excited for my little brother and sister to come home from school to hear that I have made enough to go to Texas."

The teen has been documenting her treatment and lifestyle on YouTube for the past year, but the latest video pushed the public into action and secured the final funding for her treatment.

The funds were raised by 26,872 people over the last 5 months, but many of the donations came in since her video went viral.

“We thought there was a virus or something wrong because every time we looked at the Go Fund Me it was just going up. There was just thousands and thousands,” she told the Irish Times.

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If you watch any video on the internet today, it should be this one.

18-year-old Shauntelle Tynan from Carlow has made a heart-wrenching plea via viral video for funding for her rare form of cancer.

Shan was diagnosed with multi-system Langheran’s cell histiocytosis in May 2015, and since then, her community has been funding her specialist treatment at theTexas Children’s Hospital. 

The teen does not qualify for the HSE’s Treatment Abroad Scheme as her treatment was sought outside of Europe, so it is not supported by the Irish government.

In a powerful and emotional video posted to YouTube, the teen explains that doctors in the EU do not know enough her particular type of cancer to treat it, so she has to be treated in the US.

The teen has been documenting her treatment and lifestyle on YouTube for the past year, and her latest video is incredibly poignant.

"Travelling to Texas comes with a price, but we always seem to get there thanks to the amazing support in our community, but recently we have learned that we're going to have to move to Texas for at least a year, and that's me on my own, not my family, just me, and that's because the cancer has gotten so out of control," she said. 

"The doctors in Texas have told me if I don’t come for at least 12 months then they don’t have a great chance of helping me survive."

"We’ve been emailing my government to get them to help us with costs but if you fly outside of Europe, they don’t help with medical costs," said the teen, becoming visibly upset. 

"It’s ridiculous, €350k doesn’t mean anything to our government and this is my life. I’m an Irish citizen and I just wish they’d help. It’s so sad that my life is being put on a number and how much money we need to make.” 

Shan's family have started a Go Fund Me page to raise the vital funds for her Texas treatment.

The page has already raised  €465,259 of it's €500,000 goal, but donations are still urgently needed to complete the funding. 

You can donate to help Shan here, as the page says, even a donation of €1.00 brings her closer to her goal. 

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Donations have been flooding in for the family of Lydia Daly-Shorten after she was badly injured in a fall in Guangdong, China on Saturday.

The Go Fund Me page was set up by friends to help the 26-year-old’s parents get to China to be by her side; she has been in the country teaching English since February of this year.

According to the donation page, Lydia is said to be in a stable condition but her family remain, of course, desperately worried for her.

Donations reached a staggering €11,210 in just one day, and in total they are hoping to raise €20,000 to get her family over.

People have been incredible generous, and Lydia’s father, Paul, took to the page to thank everyone for their support.

“We cannot express fully how amazing the support you all are showing for Lydia…thank you all from our hearts…” he wrote.

If you are in a position to help, you can donate here

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