GoFundMe error 'could have lost thousands' of vital donations towards Samantha Smith's lifesaving operation

An error with GoFundMe could have cost Samantha Smith thousands of pounds’ worth of vital donations towards her next lifesaving operation.

Due to several medical conditions, psychotherapist Samantha, 32, from Smithy Bridge, whose brain and spinal cord were being crushed under the weight of her own skull, urgently requires further surgeries after previous operations were not as successful as hoped.

Between October and November, the crowdfunder placed donations into a ‘holding account’ which did not allow donations to be made, despite the time sensitive nature of Samantha’s cause.

She said: “It’s caused so much stress and upset that I collapsed coming out of the bank after trying to sort it. I’ve also lost all donations from the last two television interviews because of it. Last time, they previously brought in over £10,000 worth of donations each.

“After 44 messages and a threat of media awareness, the problem was fixed in a matter of minutes.”

The platform, which is Samantha’s main source of donations, is now re-open.

Samantha, who urgently requires another fusion surgery, recently revealed that due to her various medical conditions, her body is deteriorating so rapidly, she now requires brain surgery as her brainstem is falling out of her skull.

Approximately £83,000 has been donated towards Sam’s next lifesaving operations so far, which are once again not available in the UK and will cost over £100,000.

Samantha hopes that an operation date and estimate of costs will be made available imminently, after a distance phone call with a surgeon in the United States on Tuesday 13 November.

Whilst the mother-of-two hasn’t revealed too much of that call just yet, she has said: “The outcome was positive. If I could have chosen an outcome, given my circumstances, then it would be this.”

A GoFundMe spokesperson said: "We have to take security very seriously at GoFundMe.

"We verify the identity of people withdrawing from every single campaign. In Samantha's case, she wanted her donations to go into a business bank account, which requires an even higher standard of verification by our payment processor.

"We explained what Samantha needed to provide in an email sent to her on 2 October, and she didn't respond until October 26th, which caused donations to be paused.

"If withdrawals aren't verified and set up within a certain time frame, GoFundMe has to disable donations. Donations were disabled from October 26th and then went back on on November 9th once verification documents were provided and withdrawals set up."

How you can help Save Samantha

Donations can be made via:

CrowdFunding: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/save-samantha-smith

PayPal: www.paypal.me/savesamanthapurchase

Bank Transfer: 

Name: Save Samantha 
Account no: 90266248
Sort code: 20-45-45

Read more about Samantha's brave journey:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/news-archives?type=News&Criteria=Samantha+Smith