Carol Connolly is known – and loved – by many within the Swampscott community.

“Carol has always been a very caring person,” said Jim Sweeney, who has known the Connolly family since he was in elementary school with Carol’s younger sister Jan.

The sisters are both Swampscott High School graduates. Their mother, Phillyis Connolly, was the school nurse in Swampscott for many years. Connolly later became a nurse at Union Hospital for Lynn, caring for many patients from Swampscott.

Sweeney recalled that Connolly cared for his mother after her knee replacement surgery a decade ago, and “her care for my mom was above and beyond what any of us could hope for in a nurse.”

Now, Connolly needs the community’s help.

Connolly was paralyzed from the chest down after a fall on her front steps in Swampscott in September of 2024.

“She had taken a step out from their house onto the front steps to get the mail, and you had to turn to get the mail with your right hand. She just lost her balance,” Sweeney said. “She just caught it in the exact wrong way, and it basically broke the vertebrae in her neck.”

Connolly spent many months in intensive care and rehabilitation. She has spent the past several months in an assisted living facility.

“The family really held out because they didn’t want to ask people so much and wanted to try to do what they could, but the costs are just exorbitant,” Sweeney said. “There’s been friends that really wanted to help, and they finally agreed that they would accept some help.”

Sweeney and Jody Watts have set up a GoFundMe page to support Connolly and her family. At the time of writing, the fundraiser has reached 80% of its $5,000 goal. After meeting the initial goal, organizers expanded the fundraiser to help cover additional medical equipment and travel-related expenses.

“It really shows what an impact Carol and Jan and their family had on the community through the years,” Sweeney said. “So many people in a very short period of time have shown up and stepped forward to help them out in their hour of need. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare that some tragedy strikes and you have exuberant health care costs…(It shows) what a caring person Carol is, that people want to care about her as well as Jan and her family.”

The next step for Connolly is to move to Jan and her husband Joe’s house in Ireland. Jan and Joe have lived together in Ireland since the 90s, and Jan spent most summers in Ireland while on break from teaching in Swampscott. Since the accident, Jan has remained by her sister’s side, helping manage her care, Sweeney said.

The family has modified their home in Ireland to create an accessible living space for Connolly. She will still need nearly full-time medical care as well.

“They’re going to move her over there,” Sweeney said. “But it’s going to be very expensive to set that all up and move her there, so that’s why we made the GoFundMe now.”

Connolly, who recently became an Irish citizen, should be headed to Ireland “in a matter of months,” Sweeney said, once health insurance details are figured out.

“There’s still a lot of cost involved, but she can at least get some of the home health care aids and things like that,” Sweeney said.

The GoFundMe can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-carol-jan-connollys-journey