Heartbroken relatives have set up a crowd-funding appeal to raise money to bring home the bodies of the Nunes family “for burial”.
Killed in a freak house fire in the UK last week (click here), British police are still investigating the causes of the family’s deaths.
There have been ‘exclusives’ here and in UK on the fact that Adriana texted a relative to say “goodbye” the day before the tragedy, but there has been no official corroboration of this. Instead, local news stories have concentrated on the absolute shock of people who knew the family, and the many heartfelt tributes that have been left at the site of their burned out cottage.
The sad reality however is that relatives do not have the money available to repatriate their loved-ones’ bodies for burial in Portugal.
Manuela Nunes, the sister of Tiago has thus opened a Just Giving page which hopes to raise the £25,000 needed within the next 26 days.
Explaining her appeal, Manuela Nunes writes: “We’re trying to raise the funds to help deal with the huge cost of sending home the victims of the tragedy to their homeland Portugal for their joint funerals.
“The family greatly appreciate any help given at this awful time”.
On Monday afternoon, the appeal had already raised over 51% of its target (£12,910), half of which had come in during the first 48 hours.
Manuela wrote last weekend that the family is struggling to find the words to express the gratitude they feel.
“It is comforting to be able to focus on something positive in all of this”, she added, stressing that if there is any money left over it will be donated to the specialist Children’s Burns Intensive Care Unit at Queen Victoria Hospital “in memory of Tiago, Adriana and little Tito”.
