A band who had thousands of pounds worth of instruments and equipment stolen from a van have received a huge donation from One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson.
The Chorlton based band, Maruja, had £6,000 worth of guitars, drum parts, and pedals nicked when their van was broken into on Saturday August 29.
They set up a fundraiser, and were shocked when the singer donated £4,000 to their GoFundMe page.
Thanks to the generous donation from the former boyband star, Maruja now have enough money to replace their stolen instruments and get their van fixed.
Read More: Thousands of pounds-worth of instruments and equipment stolen from a van in Chorlton
Jacob Hayes, the drummer in Maruja, said: “We can use the money to get our stuff back new and get the van fixed. We can buy our stuff back a lot sooner than we thought."
Talking to the Manchester Evening News about Louis Tomlinson donating the funds, Jacob explained how he was an expecting a call from the police when he got a notification from his GoFundMe page.
He said: “I had a look at the GoFundMe and it said £4,000 and I saw his name and thought who the hell is this guy.
“I typed his name in and he came up and I thought, surely not. But he sent us a message. Yeah, sick guy. He followed us on Twitter.”
Following the donation and they have received even more donations, raising more than their goal, and have more than doubled their Twitter followers.
The tweet has also been supported by fans of Louis Tomlinson's, with one calling Louis Tomlinson 'an angel', and another describing him as a 'legend'.
Jacob said: “In Louis doing this, we’ve had other people donating which is brilliant.
“We sent out a thank you tweet and we got 26,500 likes and 6000 retweets.
“Sometimes social media can be a sh*t place but when people latch onto a cause they deem worthy, it’s great.”
The band is excited to be able to purchase new instruments and equipment and get back to playing, hopefully before the end of the month.
