Thousands appeal to Ed Sheeran to visit survivor of Athy crash

Dayna Kearney was injured in a fatal crash this week in which four of her closest friends died. Now thousands of people are appealing to Ed Sheeran to visit the grieving girl when he comes to Ireland.

A Facebook page set up yesterday, 'Ed Sheeran, please visit Dayna', has amassed over 18,000 fans and #SingForDayna is one of the top trends in Ireland on Twitter today.

They are hoping that Ed Sheeran will visit Dayna while he is in Ireland later this month. He will play at Whelans on Saturday January 24th.

A few months ago Dayna attended an Ed Sheeran concert with her friend Chermaine Carroll, who died in the tragic crash, and posted videos of the event to her Instagram.

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"Anyone who knows Dayna will know how much she loves Ed Sheeran.

"During the summer, she brought her close friend Chermaine to see Ed at his concert.

"They described that summer as their best yet, having gone on holidays directly after.

"Let's show Dayna how much we love and support her and make this happen.

"Let's ask Ed to visit her and bring some happiness and comfort to her in her time of need."

This deserves so many RTs @edsheeran #singfordayna pic.twitter.com/E6Kl2qNLKu

— 🎶❤️Linda ❤️🎶 (@linny_pinnyx) January 10, 2015

Dayna's brother Craig has asked for people to "ask for Ed to visit Dayna".

"Dayna will be awake soon and we will be focusing instead on bringing her some comfort and happiness in this terribly hard time," he says.

"We are hoping to contact Ed Sheeran and ask him to visit Dayna when he's in Ireland this month.

"Ed was an idol to the girls, and the girls had an amazing time when they went to see him in October, which was Chermaine's first concert.

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"We will be setting up what's known as a thunderclap to get the attention of Ed's manager.

"We will be asking you all to sign up and share it, and during the week it will upload statuses, tweets and send emails from everyone's accounts all at once, bringing attention to our cause.

"It might even start trending.

"If this doesn't work, nothing will!"

Their appeal has gone viral, and a number of Irish celebrities are lending their support to the cause.

Niall Breslin says #SingForDayna is a "beautiful and comforting idea showing potential positive power of social media".

Ed has previously reached out to his fans in their time of need.

Last year he sang to Triona Priestley just a few hours before she passed away following the #SongForTri appeal.

The singer has a special place in the hearts of many Irish people after he surprised Aimee Keogh on the Late Late Toy Show last November.