The mother of a 2-year-old girl fighting cancer says singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s unexpected $100,000 donation has brought both financial relief and an outpouring of additional support to her family.
Katelynn Smoot told TMZ that Swift quietly donated the substantial sum to a GoFundMe campaign set up for her daughter Lilah, who is battling a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer.
“We had had no communication with Taylor Swift or her team before or after,” Smoot said. “It was like a very silent, ‘Let me just drop this here’ — and bless our lives!”
The family discovered the donation by chance when Smoot’s husband refreshed the fundraising page.
“The donation, we just stumbled upon it because my husband decided to refresh the GoFundMe page and just saw it. I don’t even know – it’s just such a shock,” Smoot said.
Swift’s donation prompted Smoot to publicly thank her.
“I posted a video thanking her because I felt like I had to say something about it. It’s just such a large sum. I couldn’t just let it sit there,” she said.
Smoot said Swift’s donation triggered an avalanche of additional support from the singer’s fanbase, with more contributions flooding the GoFundMe campaign after she posted her thank-you message.
The total amount raised for Lilah’s medical expenses now sits at just over $329,200, as of this writing.
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