Niall Horan, a recent cover-star on Hot Press, has made a donation of €100,000 to the charity Alone. While Niall had appeared on the cover of Hot Press as a member pf One Direction, he recently made his first solo appearance on the front of hte magazine, in a fascinating interview, coinciding with the release of his acclaimed album Heartbreak Weather.

Niall Horan has explained why he had decided to make the donation to the Irish charity.

“Through interactions with the Irish government and HSE about critical and immediate support that Ireland needed,” he explained, “I found out that Alone was a charity doing fantastic work looking after older people all over the country. With greater support they will be able to reach so many more, always a priority – but especially during this unprecedented crisis.

"It’s a real pleasure to help such a great cause,” Niall added.

Alone has welcomed the support, which will enable them to continue to provide vital assistance to older people during the Covid-19 crisis, and into the future.

With additional resources being put towards COVID-19 activities, and fundraising events being cancelled or postponed, Niall’s donation will help to ensure that Alone’s services have the financial support they need to continue and develop further into the future, a statement issued by the charity has said.

“We are so grateful to Niall for his amazing donation which will make a huge difference to Alone and the older people we support,” Alone CEO Seán Moynihan said. “We would like to thank him for his wonderful generosity. Our message throughout this period to every older person has been ‘you are not alone’. 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,” Seán Moynihan added. "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. The Alone helpline offers advice and support for Covid-19 and other issues that are coming up for older people at this time, including difficulties in relation to physical and mental health, loneliness, isolation, finance, safety, and housing. At its peak, the statement says, Alone has received more than 1,100 calls a day.

The support line, which is running in collaboration with the Department of Health, the HSE, and Local Authorities, is available to all older people including those who have not used Alone’s services previously.

People can contact Alone on 0818 222 024 if they have concerns about their own wellbeing, or the wellbeing of an older person they know. Further information can be found on www.alone.ie.

Heartbreak Weather was a UK and Irish No.1 on its release and has reached No.4 in the US (where his debut album Flicker also went to No.1). The issue of Hot Press on which Niall was cover star also contains a selection of personal stories from Uber-fans of Niall Horan, revealing why they fell in love with Niall's music. The issue has been a big hit with fans of the Irish superstar.

• Niall Horan's album Heartbreak Weather is out now.