STILL MISSING David Gavin has been missing since he jumped into Kinbasket Lake in British Colombia last Friday while travelling with friends.
Edwin McGreal
Hopes of finding the Breaffy footballer missing in Canada after he got into difficulty in water last Friday received a blow with news the official search for him has been scaled back.
David Gavin (25) is missing, feared drowned, since last Friday afternoon, local time, after getting into difficulty in the water at Kinbasket Lake in British Colombia.
However, news emerged last night (Tuesday), that Canadian authorities have scaled back the search considerably. Much of the continuing search will have to be financed privately.
A diving team from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police used sonar equipment on Sunday and Monday to scan the waters in the areas where Mr Gavin was last seen, but family and friends of Mr Gavin were informed at the scene yesterday (Tuesday) that the scanning would be discontinued and the official search would be limited to shore and surface searches only.
However, a phenomenal response to a fundraising campaign launched yesterday evening has given a great financial boost to efforts to continue a search of the water using divers sourced privately in the area.
The fund, set up by the Irish Sporting and Social Club (ISSC) in Vancouver – the Gaelic football club David Gavin played with in Canada – in conjunction with his home club, Breaffy GAA, saw contributions come in from all over the world.
At time of writing, over 2,200 people had donated in excess of C$120,000, over €80,000. The fund was initially set up to help with the bereaved’s travel and accommodation, as well as the costs associated with repatriating David’s remains. However, it will now help fund the continued search.
“To date we have been overwhelmed with the response to the fundraising campaign. The search for David is ongoing, but as a substantial amount of the search has now had to become privately funded, we are raising the target to $250,000. At this point we cannot ascertain the total costs required. However, if there are any remaining funds after all costs are covered, all remaining monies will be donated to charities involved in bringing David home,” said ISSC on the GoFundMe page.
‘Enjoying life’
Mr Gavin, from Springfield, Castlebar, emigrated to Canada last February with his girlfriend. He was en route to Calgary, Alberta with eight of his football teammates from Vancouver at the time of the incident.
Four of them stopped en route to go swimming. The Mayo News understands that Mr Gavin and the three others were jumping from a bridge into the water at Kinbasket Lake, a location close to the border with Alberta province in the south east of British Colombia.
Mr Gavin, a strong swimmer, and a lifeguard in his younger years, went first and, after resurfacing and signaling all was okay, he went to swim to the shore when he got into sudden difficulty seconds later and went under.
Despite frantic efforts at the time, he is still missing and feared drowned.
Family and friends are at the scene, doing all they can.
Mr Gavin played football with Breaffy up until the end of last year. A talented defender, he was corner-back on the Mayo Minor team which reached the 2009 All-Ireland Minor Football Final, where they lost to Armagh. He also represented Mayo at Under 21 level in 2012.
He has been twice a Mayo News Club Stars nominee after staring for Breaffy en route to two county senior finals, in 2013 and 2015. He was also a noted runner in his younger years.
He was a very popular member of the Breaffy team and was said to have been really enjoying life in Vancouver where he and his girlfriend were working and living.
Breaffy GAA has organised a special Mass of support which will take place at the Breaffy GAA Clubhouse tonight (Wednesday) at 9.30pm.
The link to the GoFund Me page is www.gofundme.com/emergency-supporting-david-gavin.
