Help save a life - Woman begs for burn victim her daughter allegedly attacked

With her daughter behind bars accused of setting a woman ablaze, Erica Cope is making an emotional plea -- not for sympathy for her child, but for help to save the very woman police say her daughter burnt.

"I sympathise with the girl that got hurt. It could have been my own daughter," Cope said, her voice breaking as she stood at the gate of her Old Road home in Whithorn, Westmoreland.

"Those of you who can help financially to save her life, please give to the GoFundMe. It's a life you are helping to save," she added.

Her daughter, 30-year-old pump attendant Collate Swaby, has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm following the fiery confrontation at a service station in Whithorn that left Dacia Forrester hospitalised with burn injuries. Swaby was arrested and formally charged on Monday following a question-and-answer session, and will make her first court appearance today.

Reports from the Whithorn police indicate that shortly after midday on February 19, an argument broke out at the service station where Swaby is employed. Investigators allege that during the dispute, Swaby doused Forrester with a flammable substance and set her on fire. Bystanders reportedly rushed to extinguish the flames before transporting the injured woman to hospital, where she remains undergoing treatment.

But according to relatives, the explosive incident was the culmination of a bitter feud that began in January over loose change at the pump. A relative of Swaby alleged that Forrester gave money from her own pocket to a bike taxi operator without Swaby's knowledge, then later demanded repayment. The dispute allegedly escalated at the time, with claims that a machete was taken up before the owner of the service station intervened and calmed tensions. Though the confrontation subsided, family members say resentment lingered for weeks.

One of Forrester's cousins alleged that tensions resurfaced when a relative went to purchase gasoline but was reportedly turned away by a pump attendant.

"That's when she (Forrester) decided to go there herself to find out what the problem was," the cousin said.

According to her, Forrester had been deliberately avoiding the establishment to prevent any confrontation -- even sending other people to shop on her behalf.

Even as she insists her daughter acted in self-defence, Cope said the situation has devastated both families.

"This should never reach so. There are two young people and we in a civilised time -- dem should go to the boss and sort it out," she said.

Now, a mother's plea hangs heavy over the quiet Westmoreland district -- a call for mercy, for healing, and for help -- as one woman fights for her life and another prepares to fight for her freedom.

Relatives of Forrester are making an urgent appeal for help to save her life.

"I am pleading to the public; I am begging help... I don't want to lose her. Her birthday is on the 26th of February," said Carol Blackwood-Hewitt about her sister in an emotional appeal, adding that she suffered third-degree burns over 70 per cent of her body.