Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Organiser of a GoFundMe page for Declan Laverty’s family, Anton has thanked the community for their support after raising $22,000 to assist with funeral costs

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Organiser of a GoFundMe page for Declan Laverty’s family, Anton has thanked the community for their support after raising $22,000 to assist with funeral costs · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that a page has been launched for Declan,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a go fund Me page, and there has been overwhelming
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: support for Declan Lavity's family after he was brutally killed
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: while working at Darwin's Airport Tavern, as we have spoken
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: about on the show, and friends of his family launched
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the go fund me page to help cover funeral costs,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: but after reaching their goal amount, the fundraising effort is
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: set to come to a halt. Now joining me on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the line is Anton, who is a friend of Declan's mother.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: My understanding is that they'd formed a strong bond after
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: she'd looked after his dad in hospital. Good morning to you, Anton.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Good morning, How are you not too bad?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Anton? Firstly, I do want to say how sorry I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: am to all of you guys, to all of Declan's
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: friends and family. It must be such an incredibly hard time.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, especially for the family. You know, it has been
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a very difficult time. But all of the support, you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: both financial and emotional. The messages on Facebook have really
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: helped Samaras through some of this, you know, as much
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: as you can at this time.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, even this morning, we've got beautiful messages coming through,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you know, saying that deck Leon had served them at
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that bottle shop, and that he always had a smile
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: on his face and that he was such a beautiful
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: young lad.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, we've received a lot of messages
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: from people who knew him, or had met him, or
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: didn't know him at all. But you know, I really
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: think it's struck a nerve with people. It's you know,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: people have family that go to work and they expect
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: them to come home. So I think, you know, in
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the community, both in Darwen and Cairns and all across
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the country, really has struck unnerved with people.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: It most certainly has. It is absolutely struck a nerve
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: for everybody here and and I know that Kansa is
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: an incredibly tight knit community as is done, and so
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: that sense would be felt right across the board. Anton.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Can you tell me how much money have you managed
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: to raise for the family so far with this go
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: fundb Paige?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So it raised just under twenty two and a half
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars before we stopped it overnight. It just went
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: absolutely crazy and so basically when we got up this
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: morning we were shocked at how much had gone in there.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And you know, all we really want to do is
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: help Samara with some of the expenses of getting deck
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: one home and paying for the funeral. And it's just
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the support has just been completely overwhelming.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Twenty two thousand dollars, that's what that is unbelievable.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Let's in a day and a half. The generosity of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Australia and especially the Darwin and km's communities. It's just,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: you know, it's uplifting.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mate, How far and wide were those donations coming from.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Well, I know we had at least one from England.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: We It's difficult to tell on the go family page
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: because it doesn't tell you where people are from, but
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I do know that there were a lot of people
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: who were involved with the Australian Navy because Samara's father
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: had been in the Navy who donated. There were a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: lot of people leaving messages who obviously were from Darwin
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: and Cannes. But it's just been coming from everywhere.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: It is beautiful to hear, you know, it is. It
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: is really nice to hear the way that the community
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: has gotten behind this. Tell me, what have you had
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to speak to Samara about the about you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the level of community support that has been and what's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: her reaction been.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I haven't spoken to her today and she'll be
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: very surprised to see how much it has been raised.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: But talking to her yesterday, she she just was so appreciative.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: She couldn't really put into words, you know, how how
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: much it's touched her to receive all this support, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: you know, the financial obviously takes a big burden off
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: her as far as getting her son home, but just
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: all of the messages from people, you know, everything has
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: been positive, you know, and it really is helping her
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: and her daughter and brother and the rest of the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: family through this whole thing.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Well, mate, we spoke to Declan's dad earlier in the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: week and spoke about the utter heartbreak that that I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: know he and the whole family is feeling. Please pass
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: on our love to his mum, his whole family, and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to all of you guys. You know, I cannot imagine
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the heartache that they're feeling at this point in time,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: but please know that the whole of the Darwin community
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: is certainly with them, and you know, if we could
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: wrap our arms around them, we most certainly would.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I know that she really appreciates that.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think she feels that the community is
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: wrapping their arms around her, and you know she does
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: really appreciate that, obviously going through a lot of mixed emotions,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: but you know, Nicole and I Am and Samara, you know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: just really really want to thank everyone for this overwhelming support.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know, out of all of the out of the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: bad thing that's happened, for people to step up and
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: help like this really shows the best in people.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: An Tom, thank you so much for speaking with us
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: this morning. I know that this kind of thing's not
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: easy to get on and talk about, so I really
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time today.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your time.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you