TWO YOUNG LOVERS from different sides of the Atlantic have started a GoFundMe campaign to re-unite them for the summer.
Shane Leahy (17) from Kerry and Madeline Walsh (18) from Massachusetts met last Summer while Madeline was visiting relatives in Kerry.
They met in Garvey’s supermarket in Dingle, and Shane offered to show Madeline around.
“So for the next couple of nights… four nights in a row we walked his dog Roxy around Dingle for a couple of hours,” Madeline told Radio Kerry’s Talkabout with Deirdre Walsh.
We just explored and talked and everything and it was awesome. We just immediately clicked it was unreal.
However, after just four days the romance was cut short and Madeline had leave Kerry for Dublin to fly back to the US.
“It was very sad because we thought that we were never going to see each other again.”
But the two kept in touch and Shane visited Madeline for a week in February and cemented their relationship.
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But with college life looming ahead, Shane and Madeline weren’t sure if they could afford meet again this Summer.
That’s when to idea struck them to start the GoFundMe page to try to raise $1000 dollars to get Shane back over to Massachusetts for a few weeks in July.
The page has received widespread support from people on both sides of the Atlantic, and the donations currently sit at $500 – half the amount needed.
“I was a little tentative to post it but now I’m glad that I did,” Madeline told Radio Kerry.
She said that she didn’t want to get her hopes up about raising the amount needed but was starting to feel quite confident about it.
Want to donate? visit gofundme.com/getshanetoboston
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