Louis Tomlinson has donated $10,000 to a young One Direction fan to help pay for her medical needs.
Louis Tomlinson
The 26-year-old singer learnt of a YouCaring page launched by the parents of nine-year-old Rylee Sanford to help raise funds so they can modify their home to accommodate the youngster's special needs and hopefully provide her with pioneering medical treatment.
Rylee - who is from Chatsworth, Georgia - has the rare brain malformation bilateral close-lipped schizencephaly which causes her cerebral palsy which requires her to need unique care.
On the YouCare page her parents reveal that "Rylee loves music and animals, can also be quite sassy but we love it ... and loves Zayn (Malik), Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Jojo Siwa, Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt" and describe her as a "true warrior" who "always has a smile on her face"
Louis made the sizeable donation on Rylee's page on Monday (15.01.18) after learning of the 'Smiles for Rylee' campaign and left the message "Sending you all the love!"
His former 1D bandmate Zayn Malik also shared the fundraising drive story on his Twitter account with his 26.4 million followers and that tweet resulted in a large number of his fans donating money to help Rylee, who has her own Instagram account @rockstarylee where people can follow her journey.
The post on Rylee's YouCaring page reads: "Rylee is 9 years old and has bilateral close-lipped schizencephaly which ultimately causes her cerebral palsy. Schizencephaly is a very rare brain malformation which means her brain has 2 clefts on it. When she was born the drs told us she would never smile or do anything. We were devasted but she has been proving those drs wrong ... Rylee currently can't walk without assistance, and she crawls around our house or we carry her. Rylee can say a few words but can't carry on a conversation. We, as her family, want to help her reach her full potential and get her all the help she needs. In her medical stroller she has no way of freedom, As she has to rely on us. To help her reach her full ability, we need house modifications to make our home accessible and funding for certain medical needs. The home modifications we need are a walk-in shower, widened doorways and a ramp added to our porch. Our next goal would be stem cell treatments as there have been a lot of great results. However, insurance will not cover most of this, and it is pretty expensive. Please help Rylee reach her full potential and achieve her dreams!!! Any donations will help!!! [sic]"
Tagged in One Direction Zayn Malik Louis Tomlinson