Taylor Swift fans who helped raise more than £200,000 for victims of the Southport knife attack in the UK hope the money will offer families "an ounce of comfort".
Merseyside Police have confirmed three children aged six, seven and nine have died after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in the town which left five others in a critical condition.
The attack took place at a children's event themed on US singer Taylor Swift, whose fans had raised more than £200,000 as of 6.45pm on Tuesday through their Swifties for Southport online fundraiser.
Cristina Jones, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire and Holly Goldring from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, started the JustGiving page to ease the "financial burden" on the families involved.
"What compelled us was we were thinking about the fact that these families are going through just unimaginable hell right now," Ms Jones told the PA news agency.
"It feels really nice we’ve done something really positive.
"I firmly believe there’s nothing we can do to make the families feel better because of what they’re going through right now, but if we’ve taken some sort of burden from them, financial or whatever, it’s nice to know that we’ve done what we can do."
Ms Jones added she is "thinking of them and we’re praying for them" and confirmed all proceeds will go directly to Alder Hey Children’s Charity, in honour of the hospital where the victims are being treated.
"We just couldn’t sit back and allow more stress onto … families that are going through the worst possible thing you could go through," she explained.
"We have no intentions of reaching out to the families ourselves - it will be Alder Hey who will help in terms of the family getting money, we will keep a respectable distance."
Ms Jones said it was "really lovely" to see Swift share a statement on Instagram paying tribute to the victims, with the US singer stating she is "completely in shock" following the attack.
"She’s bringing it to attention and letting the families know she’s well aware and is thinking of them," Ms Jones said.
Meanwhile, Ms Goldring, 27, said it is "within Swifties’ nature to care and love and support each other".
The sales manager hopes the fundraiser can offer the family "an ounce of comfort" through the "utter turmoil" of losing their children to Monday’s knife attack.
"The last thing a family should be worrying about is the how they’re going to pay for the funeral of their little girl," Ms Goldring said.
"It’s giving the families that relief in a time of complete and utter turmoil. It’s their living nightmare and just knowing they have an entire community standing behind them.
"We are just sending all of our love, and we are so incredibly sorry for what has happened.
"Nothing can change what happened (on Monday), but we just hope that this provides even an ounce of comfort."
Danielle Stewart set up a Facebook group called UK Swifties roughly a year-and-a-half ago and when news of the Southport incident broke on Monday, she said many members wanted to do something to help, so she set up a GoFundMe page which surpassed its target within the space of a day.
"I knew when I set it up the community would all come together, but I didn’t expect it to go over the target so quickly at all," the 31-year-old, who is based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, told PA.
"It’s amazing that they’ve all come together in wanting to do something for these families.
"To think they went for a bit of fun and to make happy memories and then this happened is just awful."
The Taylor Swift fundraiser can be found here.
Source: Press Association
