--- title: Taylor Swift Donated Thousands to Fan Whose Mom Is in a Coma description: The 'Reputation' singer donated $15,500 to a fan's GoFundMe account to support her family while her mom is in a long-term coma. canonical: https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-23T19:16:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:36.234Z og:title: Taylor Swift Donated Thousands to Fan Whose Mom Is in a Coma og:description: The fan's mom has been in a coma for three years, and Swift gave to her GoFundMe og:url: https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Donated Thousands to Fan Whose Mom Is in a Coma twitter:description: The fan's mom has been in a coma for three years, and Swift gave to her GoFundMe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Taylor Swift Just Gave a Major Donation to a Fan Whose Mother Is in a Coma > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c3ee2c0-bba7-4938-9be0-fabb3eb92735&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 23, 2018 7:16 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 23, 2018 7:16 PM UTC [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/5426974/taylor-swift-voting-post/) has made it a habit to subtly support fans — and this week was no exception, as the[ _Reputation_](http://time.com/5379104/taylor-swift-karlie-kloss-reputation-tour/) singer made a quiet donation to the GoFundMe campaign of an Idaho fan named [Sadie Bartell](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/taylor-swift-donates-15500-fan-mother-coma/story?id=58685297). Bartell’s mother, as Sadie shared in a lengthy note on Twitter, has been in a coma for three years after suffering complications from an ulcer. And due to the need to care for her, Sadie and her father and five siblings have come under financial strain; Sadie is 19 and in college. Bartell is clearly a true-blue Swiftie — even her Twitter account avatar is an image of Swift. So in a nice full-circle move, Swift herself came through and gave $15,500 [to the GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/lauriannbartell), which has now hit over $26,000 of its $40,000 goal. (In Sadie’s shared screenshot of the donation, Swift even chose to make the gift from “Taylor, Meredith and Olivia Swift,” including her [cats Meredith and Olivia](http://time.com/4301509/most-influential-animals/item/meredith-grey-and-olivia-benson/) in the mix.) This isn’t the first time Swift has made a meaningful gesture for her fans. She’s known for often sending [bouquets of flowers](http://time.com/4902824/taylor-swift-flower-gift/) to supporters over the years. But recently, Swift made bigger headlines by [speaking out in support](http://time.com/5419015/taylor-swift-instagram-endorsement-tennessee-democrat/) of a number of Democratic politicians in Tennessee and urging fans to register to vote and speak out. She’s currently on tour in Australia, but distance isn’t keeping her from her stateside fans. > [](https://twitter.com/swiftsinautumn/status/1046917851334860800) > [](https://twitter.com/swiftsinautumn/status/1053680251996319744) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/"},"headline":"Taylor Swift Just Gave a Major Donation to a Fan Whose Mother Is in a Coma","datePublished":"2018-10-23T19:16:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:36.234Z","description":"Swift gave $15,500","url":"https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Taylor Swift"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5432194/taylor-swift-fan-coma/","name":"Taylor Swift Just Gave a Major Donation to a Fan Whose Mother Is in a Coma"}}]}] ```