Crowdfunding campaign for Karen Buckley raises almost €70,000 in 24 hours

By Liz Dunphy

The crowdfunding campaign for Karen Buckley and her family has raised almost €70,000 in the same short 24 hours that her remains were found and a man was arrested in connection with her death.

The money was raised by 2,870 people in one day, and although the fundraising campaign has now closed, there are already requests to re-open it by people who still want to donate to the fund.

The Go Fund Me campaign, accessible here was set up by Karen Buckley's former classmates who studied for a nursing degree with her at the University of Limerick.

The nursing graduates established the crowdfunding webpage to assist the Buckley family while they were in Scotland searching for their missing daughter.

Karen Buckley's former UL classmates expressed their gratitude to those who donated and said "a huge thank you to everyone for your kind words and amazing donations."

They said that "the response has been overwhelming," on their crowdfunding campaign page.

My thoughts n prayers goes out to the beautiful family who lost a angel & heaven gained one.Sleep well #KarenBuckley pic.twitter.com/mDv2IG7AHn

— Daniel Ryan.🇮🇪 (@DanielRyan11) April 16, 2015

Karen had recently moved to Scotland to study for an MSc in Occupational therapy at the Glasgow Caledonian University .

Tonight at @CaledonianNews we began laying flowers in memory of #KarenBuckley, thinking of friends and family today x pic.twitter.com/ymQ1Opujak

— Monika Maitles (@Missmonika_x) April 16, 2015

An 'excellent student', 'bright', 'popular', 'talented', 'kind' and 'caring' were the words repeatedly used to describe the young woman by her lecturers and fellow students at both universities she attended.