Keeley Thornton: Fundraising appeal for Sheffield woman, 34, passes £2K after tragic death
A fundraising appeal in memory of a much-loved Sheffield woman who tragically died after collapsing on a city centre street has passed the £2,000 mark.
Keeley Thornton, aged 34, sadly died after emergency services were called to reports of a woman who was unconscious on Arundel Gate on Tuesday, January 14.
South Yorkshire Police said she was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival, and her death was being treated as ‘unexplained.
The force said a 47-year-old woman had been arrested and bailed on suspicion of administering a noxious substance.
Ms Thornton, who it is understood grew up in the Woodthorpe area of Sheffield, was well-known on TikTok.
Videos of her singing in Sheffield city centre, posted by other people and often tagged ‘Sheffield Keeley’, had received hundreds of millions of views on the social media platform.
A homelessness charity said she had been ‘exploited for likes’ by people taking advantage of her ‘vulnerabilty’ and sharing the videos online.
A fundraising appeal launched in her memory told how Ms Thornton, known to some people as ‘Cotton Wool’, had a ‘beautiful heart’.
The appeal, set up on GoFundMe to help Ms Thornton’s family, had reached £2,140 as of this morning, Friday, January 17.
Tim Renshaw, chief executive of the Sheffield-based Archer Project homelessness charity, said following Ms Thornton’s death that there was ‘huge sadness’ at her death but also anger at the way she had been ‘exploited for likes’ on social media during her tragically short life.
Writing in a blog post referring to Ms Thornton’s tragic death, though not mentioning her by name, he said she told workers at the charity how she had been given money to appear on social media ‘to swim in fountains in the middle of winter or dance in an inebriated state like a performing clown or whatever’.
He added: “She was effectively being fed booze to perform because that was her addiction.
“Some will say they didn’t know. Come on, let’s be real, it was hard to not know. Her alcoholism was the attraction, her fuelled with drink and what she would do when drunk, that was the sought after video, JUST FOR LIKES!”
Mr Renshaw went on to quote a colleague, who said: “The truth is she was a person, a daughter, a niece. She was a human being not an entertainment.”
A shrine to Ms Thornton has been set up at a bus stop on Arundel Gate, close to where she collapsed, with flowers, photos and candles among the tributes.
To donate to the GoFundMe appeal in Ms Thornton’s memory, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/cotton-wool-keeley-Thornton.
Anyone with information which could help officers investigating her death is asked to call South Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 782 of January 14.