ONE DIRECTION star and Irish native Niall Horan has donated €100,000 to the charity ALONE.
ALONE provides essential support to hundreds of older people across Ireland who are homeless, socially isolated, living in deprivation or in crisis.
The Westmeath musician’s kind donation will allow the charity to continue their important work during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
ALONE has already dedicated additional resource to supporter older people in communities during the pandemic and has done so despite having to postpone or cancel a string of essential fundraising events.
It was with this in mind that Horan decided to lend his support.
"Through interactions with the Irish government and HSE about critical and immediate support that Ireland needed, I found out that ALONE was a charity doing fantastic work looking after older people all over the country," he said.
"With greater support they will be able to reach so many more, always a priority but especially during this unprecedented crisis.
The donation will ensure ALONE’s services are maintained and developed further over the next few months.
"Our message throughout this period to every older person has been 'You are not alone'," said ALONE CEO Sean Moynihan.
"We would like to thank Niall for helping us to continue to make this a reality and support older people across Ireland.
"At the moment we are putting huge resources into keeping the national COVID-19 phone line for older people operating and ensuring that older people have the emotional and practical supports they need to get through this crisis.
"We want to ensure that the support we provide, which has proven so vital over the last few weeks, can continue after the crisis is over. It is supporters like Niall that help to make this happen."
ALONE continues to encourage older people who need advice or support to call their support line, 0818 222 024 from 8am-8pm, seven days a week.
