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David Gavin ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Over €100k raised for family of missing Irishman as Canadian police suspend searches

David Gavin disappeared after swimming with friends at the start of the month.

OVER €100,000 has been raised for missing Irish man David Gavin as it emerged Canadian police have stood down searches for his body.

The man, who plays with Breaffy GAA club in Castlebar, jumped into the water from a bridge in the Beaver Creek area of British Columbia on Friday afternoon when he disappeared.

A search was launched after his friends raised the alarm.

Spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Anne Linteau, said that a number of “ underwater and surface scans” but have proven unsuccessful.

She said: “Unfortunately at this stage police are presuming that the missing man has drowned. We have requested that our air services unit conduct periodic flyovers of the area throughout the summer, in the hopes that he will be located soon.”

A GoFund me page set up to raise money for Gavin’s family had raised over €100,000 within 15 hours of the fundraising effort starting.

The page, which was set up by a friend of Gavin’s, says he had “recently moved to Canada with his girlfriend Ciara, and is a hugely popular figure within the Irish GAA community in Vancouver and within the GAA community at home with his club Breaffy and with his county Mayo.

“In order to help David’s family, girlfriend Ciara, her family, friends and teammates at this time, we’ve set up this page in order to raise as much funds as we can to support the search and associated expenses in locating David and getting him home.”

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Garreth MacNamee
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