Mum Nikki Smith came under fire earlier this year after she set up a crowdfunding appeal to take her daughters to Disney World.
Nikki removed her GoFundMe page after raising just €12 in an initial appeal. However, she decided to start crowdfunding again and says she has now received almost €8,000, which she will use to take her kids to Disney World next summer.
33-year-old Nikki says her daughters, aged ten and 12, have always wanted to go to Disney World but she can’t afford to take them.
She wrote on her GoFundMe appeal page: “I work at a hospital on a zero-hours contract, and I’m struggling to get two nights a week. I have been trying to get more, but it is so hard.
“My parents both work – my mum works in care, and my dad works nights – and the children are too young to be left alone.
“I have got bills and shopping and everything, and children. I have got a little bit of money, but not enough to be able to save up to take them away."
She claims that by the time she could save enough money to take them, her daughters would be “too old” to enjoy Disney World.
Although Nikki was slammed for setting up the appeal, she argued that she’d seen other crowdfunding pages for holidays, plastic surgery and cars.
She said: “I am not a bad person. I was only thinking of my children and making them happy. I have never used GoFundMe before, so I should have looked into it more.
“I thought this section of the website was for funding hopes, dreams and wishes, and I believed GoFundMe was a chance to raise money for anything.”
Nikki told The Sun that she had received a lot of abuse online following her initial appeal: “Some of the comments were disgusting. People have been comparing me to a homeless beggar, and things like that. I’m absolutely traumatised by it all."
Despite the comments, she continued to crowdfund, and now it appears her daughters’ dreams will be coming true after all.
In a message posted two days ago, she wrote: “I just want to thank you all again. We are going to Disneyworld summer 2018!! I will post pics when we are back! You are all angels.”
What do you think of Nikki's crowdfunding appeal, mums? Let us know your thoughts.
