Louis Tomlinson thanks fans for their support

Louis Tomlinson has taken to social media to thank his millions of dedicated fans for their support over the last few days.

The star was left heartbroken on Wednesday 7th December when his beloved mother, Johannah Deakin, passed away aged 43 following a short and secret battle with leukaemia.

Johannah had been looking forward to seeing Louis make his solo debut on The X Factor final at the weekend, and the One Direction star made the difficult decision to fulfil her final wish and go ahead with the performance as planned just three days after her tragic death.

Louis’ three 1D bandmates, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Liam Payne, dropped everything so that they could support the 24-year-old singer backstage at Wembley Arena, and the star’s collaborator, Steve Aoki, also cancelled his own booked appearances so that he could be there on the night.

Sharing a photo from his heartfelt performance of solo single ‘Just Hold On’, which has since reached number one in the iTunes chart, Louis simply wrote: “Thank you for the incredible support :)”.

Louis had previously taken to Twitter to thank his friends, family and fans for being there for him on what was an understandably difficult night.

Admitting that he wasn’t prepared for quite how hard the performance was, Louis wrote: “That was harder than I ever imagined. I want to thank everyone around me and all of the amazing fans out there that made that so special!

"Feeling so much love around me and my family . Mum would have been so f***ing proud ( sorry for swearing mum ) love you ! [sic]”

Louis was visibly fighting back tears after his performance, with Simon Cowell paying tribute to Johannah, saying to Lou: “I have to say something to you. I’ve known you for six years, what you’ve just done - the bravery.

"I respect you as an artist and I respect you as a person. Your mum was so proud of you Louis and she was so looking forward to this performance. She’s watching over you now and you’ve done her so proud.”

Johannah was also mother to 18-year-old Lottie, 16-year-old Felicite, 12-year-old twins Daisy and Phoebe and two-year-old twins Doris and Ernest.