More than £66,000 has been raised to help a Black boy who had to have his finger amputated after suffering an injury while running away from school “bullies”.
Raheem Bailey, 11, was attacked, beaten, kicked and pushed to the ground by a group of children during morning break time his school Abertillery, Wales, his mother Shantal Bailey said.
Ms Bailey said her son tried to escape but got his finger caught while climbing a fence, breaking it.
Despite surgeons spending six hours trying to save his finger, they were left with no choice but to amputate it.
Raheem’s mother recounted her son’s plight on a GoFundMe page with a target of £10,000, which she set up to crowdfund for a personalised prosthetic finger for her son.
As of Saturday evening, more than £66,000 had been donated and the amount was continuing to rise.
In a message on the page, Ms Bailey wrote: “I’m fundraising to get my 11-year-old son, Raheem Bailey, a prosthetic finger and any additional cost to get him on the road to recovery.
“Raheem has faced racial and physical abuse, as well as more generic bullying about his height and other things, since he started secondary school in September 2021.
“Although he had mentioned a few incidents of people being ‘mean to him’ recently, I did not realise the extent of what he was going through until an incident this week.”
She said that as he tried to escape the school grounds after being targeted, he tried to climb a fence.
“His finger got caught and attached to it, causing the skin to strip and the finger to break in half,” she said.
“After six hours of surgery to save it, which was ultimately unsuccessful, his finger had to be amputated.”
Ms Bailey said she had contacted the school, Abertillery Learning Community, on Monday to raise concerns about Raheem being bullied and she was reassured everything would be handled by the Tuesday morning.
A spokesperson for Abertillery Learning Community said: “We are currently working closely with Gwent Police and the local authority to establish the full details of the incident.
“The well-being and safety of our pupils and staff remains of paramount importance. We will not be commenting further at this time.”
Gwent Police confirmed it was looking into the incident.
“A multi-agency meeting has taken place and we’re working with the school as part of our ongoing enquires,” a spokesperson told The Independent.
