By Luke Voogt
Geelong donors have opened their hearts and wallets in 2020 despite COVID-19, raising more than $365,000 for six of the city’s top GoFundMe campaigns.
Geelong’s top campaign raised more than $140,000 for a Highton family with two terminally-ill children, who have since bought a wheelchair-compatible car and are planning modifications to their home.
“We’re still completely shocked by it,” the children’s mother Kelly McElligott said.
In May the Independent revealed the campaign for terminally-ill children Maggie and Billy had already raised $70,000 in just 24 hours.
Maggie was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease in April 2019, while Billy was diagnosed with the rare fatal genetic disorder this February.
The incurable disease destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing children to slowly lose their ability to walk and talk, and eventually results in seizures.
Younger sister Alice does not have the condition and is already trying to help her older siblings, according to Kelly.
She described the generosity of so many people she had never met as “very special”.
“I think people thought, ‘I would hate for my child to be diagnosed with a terminal illness’ and they just wanted to do what they could,” she said.
“I guess its people’s worst nightmare – and we’re living it.”
The family bought a Kia Karnival in June but had to wait until last week to put it in for modifications.
Only two NDIS providers do the modifications and COVID-19 had further delayed them, Kelly explained.
The family are also looking to install a lift in their home and plan to put some money aside for Maggie’s and Billy’s funerals.
But for now Kelly and husband Rory are making the most of every day with their “beautiful kids”.
Geelong donors gave generously to the family of loving father Jackson Burke, who died of a rare viral infection, Corey Boyle, who is fighting stage four bowel cancer and Fleur Gollan, who has a crippling genetic disorder.
Locals also donated in support of former Geelong woman Abbey Forrest and her family, killed in an alleged arson attack on their Point Cook home this month, and Manifold Heights prep student Nolan Hiotakis’s battle against cancer.
“The fact that people are so willing to help over so many different campaigns – during hard times for everybody – just amazes me,” Kelly said.
