Earlier this month, a woman named Kaitlynn Smoot shared a touching video of her young daughter battling illness. CancerI'm watching the video on Taylor Swift''Ophelia's fate” In the clip, little Layla points to the screen and says, “That’s my friend!”
The video quickly went viral, with fans flooding Smoot's social media page @standwithlilah with messages of love and support for Lilah, who is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer. Just a few weeks later, on Friday, Lyla received a touching surprise from her “friend” Swift – a gift of $100,000. donate to her GoFundMe for medical assistance and a tender message: “Hugs to my friend Lila! Love, Taylor.”
Swift's quiet donation, spotted by Swifties, inspired other fans of the pop star to follow suit and contribute to the fundraiser, $13 each, in honor of Swift's favorite number. At the time of publication, the fundraiser had raised more than $167,000 in donations from more than 2,000 people.
Following the six-figure donation, Smoot shared a video of her and Lyla dancing to “The Life of Ophelia,” reacting to the news and sharing her gratitude for Swift's generosity. “Thank you so much Taylor Swift. Now we can just focus on being here with our baby girl. Truly we are so grateful… You have no idea what this means to our family,” she captioned the post.
On the page, Smoot shared her and her daughter's love for Swift, as well as how she gave birth to “little Swifty” after attending the Eras Tour while pregnant with her. “Lila's name was originally going to be Willow,” Smoot explained in one video, referencing Folklore Darling. “We went by that name throughout my pregnancy, but ultimately settled on Lila.”
On a GoFundMe that has been running since Lyla began chemotherapy in March, Smoot explained that baby Lyla was diagnosed with a “very rare, aggressive form of brain cancer” earlier this year after a bout. An MRI revealed a stage 4 tumor, which was removed in March, and she has been undergoing chemotherapy ever since. In an August update, Smuts updated donors about the treatment.
“After [an MRI and LP]she will begin 6 weeks of proton irradiation where our family will have to go to [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia] so that she can receive it,” they wrote. – We'll be several hundred miles from home. All donations received will help us pay travel expenses and bills as we are still out of work while Laila is undergoing treatment.”
