Leazes fresher who set up GoFundMe page to pay off overdraft receives £500 donation

The Castle Leazes fresher who set up her own GoFundMe page so she could get out of her overdraft has received over £500 in donations.

Emma McCormick from Belfast was gobsmacked to see six donations had been made on her page – one of which was a donation of £500. There was another donation of £50 and four £5 donations.

Emma told The Tab: “All in all, I really am speechless, never did I think anything like this would happen. I just had a scroll through gofundme and people create pages for everything including money to go on honeymoons, for holidays, everything under the sun.

“The donation came as a major shock, from an anonymous donor. I had just finished a work shift at NEXT and my flatmates met me to go to costa. I was standing in the queue when a friend messaged me saying ‘Check your emails’ which I did, and nearly collapsed in the middle of Costa. We were in hysterics, couldn’t believe it.”

“Then the barista pointed at me and said how he’d read the article online, and started laughing. He was really nice and said how he couldn’t believe people had taken it seriously, he personally thought it was a rather funny joke.

“I’m in complete and utter disbelief that a Facebook status that I thought my friends would find humorous, that was written almost 2/3 months ago, has provoked widespread scandal. Never in a million years did I believe for a second that people would take satire from a tab article as serious news.”

The anonymous person gave the generous amount of money a day after Emma’s campaign was featured in The Tab and online papers including The Independent and the Daily Mail. It was also printed in The Sun.

She said: “The Independent, The Mirror, The Irish Mirror, The Daily Mail all posted articles twisting words and adding in their own concepts in order to create a media frenzy. Comment sections have ruthlessly labelled me as the reason for the financial state of the United Kingdom at present, calling me every name under the sun, as well as calling for me to ‘get a job’ slightly ironic considering every article mentioned that I work in NEXT, which I have done since I was 16.

“However, many people have been supportive, realising the joke and after reading The Tab article have commented on how they found it all rather comical. In fact I think it’s the ignorant people that didn’t take the time to understand the situation fully, have presented themselves as cruel internet bullies.”

Emma says she’ll now sit back, save the money and put it towards a volunteer project after uni: “My friend and I have always expressed great interest to one in Thailand that works with elephants in a sanctuary. At the end of the day this is going to be a fab story to tell the grandchildren.

“Definitely going to start writing a blog now, always said I would and this has given me the determination / motivation to do it. I’d like to look back in 50 years and think of all the random things that happened in my life, we’re not here for a long time, but we are here for a good time.”