AN appeal for donations to help the devastated family of Cork woman Karen Buckley has topped £50,000.
Karen’s classmates from the University of Limerick, where she studied nursing before moving to Britain, rallied together to set up on online fundraiser to help the family with their costs in Glasgow, as well as for looking after their farm during their time in Scotland.
In just 24 hours, over £50,000 has been raised.
Father John Buckley spoke of his daughter’s love for life in a statement released yesterday after police confirmed a body found on a farm in High Craigton was that of the Irish woman.
“She was an outgoing girl who travelled the world where she met lots of people and thoroughly enjoyed her life,” he said of his only daughter. “We will miss her terribly.”
Karen on the night she disappeared. Photo: FacebookThe youngest of four children, Karen had been living in London before moving to Glasgow in February.
Her brothers Kieran and Damian live in Australia, while a third brother, Brendan, is in Cork, where the family are from.
Tributes poured in for the 24-year-old on the online fundraising page, as people across Britain and Ireland expressed their sympathies over her death.
One woman, Louise Bailes, said: “We tried to donate after realising that Karen was the nurse who looked after my husband, when he had surgery last September. May her parents find comfort in knowing what a wonderful, caring, brilliant nurse she was.”
Another read “what a terrible waste of life”.
Karen had been studying for a master’s degree in occupational therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Before starting her course earlier this year, she worked as a nurse in Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex.
She was on a night out with her friends in Glasgow last Saturday last when she left to go to the bathroom at about 1am.
She never returned.
Karen was last seen on CCTV speaking to a man outside Sanctuary nightclub, where the group had been enjoying their night out.
On Wednesday police in Glasgow searched farmland about six miles north of the city where Karen's body was discovered.
A 21-year-old man remains in police custody in the city in connection with her death.
He is due to appear before a court in Glasgow today.
