NXT Taylor Swift Donates $100K to Young Fan Battling Cancer: ‘Sending the Biggest Hug’
Taylor Swift is helping out a young fan in need.
On Friday, Oct. 17, the pop star, 35, made a quiet donation to the parents of a 2-year-old girl named Lilah, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer after suffering a seizure at just 18 months old.
Lilah’s mom Katelynn Smoot has shared her daughter’s story on social media for months, and the toddler’s family has been fundraising for her treatment via GoFundMe since March.
Swift came into the picture just last week, when Katelynn shared a video to her TikTok account — dubbed “Stand with Lilah” — showing how her 2-year-old called the “Life of a Showgirl” singer her “friend” while watching a video of Swift on her iPad.
“This might be my fault,” Katelynn joked in the caption of the Oct. 8 video, which also featured footage of the mom-of-two pregnant with Lilah while attending Swift’s Eras Tour.
“Lilah’s name was originally going to be Willow,” the proud mom continued, referencing Swift’s 2020 track by the same name. “We were set on that name my whole pregnancy but ultimately ended on Lilah.”
“I listened to Taylor my whole pregnancy and then birthed a mini Swiftie. Lilah loves Taylor’s music and during her cancer treatment she always found joy in it,” Katelynn continued. “I hope Lilah gets through this diagnosis and gets to one day go to a Taylor Swift concert in person. I know she would love it.”
According to the GoFundMe page, Lilah’s form of brain cancer is extremely rare and aggressive, as only 58 known cases were documented documented in the U.S. last year.
Although the toddler has already had a mass removed from her brain and recovered from the surgery well, Lilah’s treatment still includes three months of chemotherapy, three months of stem cell treatment and some proton radiation, which will require her to stay at a hospital for four weeks at a time and to travel several hours away to a children’s hospital.
After just over a week, Katelynn’s heartfelt video seemingly made its way to Swift, and on Friday, Oct. 17, the musician made a $100,000 donation on GoFundMe.
“Sending the biggest hug to my friend, Lilah!” she wrote underneath her donation. “Love, Taylor.”
Katelynn, Lilah and the rest of the family were immediately ecstatic, as the donation brought them nearly $60,000 over their $100,000 fundraising goal.
In a video shared on Friday, Katelynn wrote that the donation would allow them to “just focus on being here with our girl.”
“Is this real life?” she captioned the heartfelt video, which featured herself and Lilah dancing to Swift’s new track “The Fate of Ophelia.”
“Thank you so so much @taylorswift. I am in shock,” Katelynn continued. “This means so much to us. I can’t express in words how incredibly grateful we are. Tyler [Lilah’s father] and I can just focus on our baby girl and being together as a family.”
The sweet video also featured Lilah thanking the pop star — and once again calling her “my friend.”
“I can’t stop crying. You have given us such a beautiful gift,” Katelynn added. “Thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️.”
