A GoFundMe page set up to help the family of Limerick rower Ailish Sheehan (23), who died last Friday from injuries sustained in a fall, has raised nearly $10,000 (about €8,900).
Ms Sheehan had travelled to Poland ahead of her participation in the women's senior coxed fours final at the FISU World University Rowing Championships in Poznan.
Hours after winning a bronze medal in the race, Ailish fell and hit her skull, sustaining critical head injuries.
She died last Friday, surrounded by her parents John and Catherine and her siblings Niamh and Áine, after spending six days on a life-support machine in a Polish hospital.
Ailish’s family are in the process of arranging to have her body flown home for burial.
To help the family meet the costs of this, as well as hospital bills and their extended stay in Poland, the crowdfunding account was set up.
The account was set up last Wednesday in the US, where Ailish had attended the University at Notre Dame.
Donations
Donations have already been received from the US, Britain and Ireland, and pledgers have posted scores of messages of support for the Sheehan family.
Ailish, a postgraduate student at Goldsmiths, University of London, had been representing the University of London Boat Club at the championships.
She is a former member of Dooneen Athletic Club, where she represented Ireland in the shot put and javelin.