Generous NI YouTube star donates to those in need

Adam Beales posted on Twitter that he wanted to support those struggling during the lockdown in some way, and within a few hours he was sending money to his followers via PayPal as he responded to heart-rending messages from people in dire situations.

Known as Adam B online, the 20-year-old star has amassed more than 2.7 million subscribers, and his gesture even prompted others to help out too.

“I just had a feeling of helping out that night and so posted out a tweet asking if anyone was struggling and needed extra help during this time,” he said. “It was just a spontaneous thing. The more and more people who came forward with their struggles, it was hard not to help. I kept working through all the messages until my phone battery literally died that night.’’

The gesture helped people with their rent, utility bills, single mothers struggling, and some who just wanted a little to treat for them and their loved ones.

Adam said he was moved to tears by some of the responses, and his gesture got the thumbs up from his followers with one describing him as a “loving, kind human being”.

Adam said: “I wanted to help people who were especially struggling during this time so anyone who replied to the post, usually gave a story about what’s going on in their lives at the moment.

‘‘It was once again a reminder of how lucky I am. Whenever you see people and families be torn apart by this pandemic, it’s very hard to ignore. My deepest love goes out to all of whom are affected.

“There were no ulterior motives behind my reasoning that night,” he added. “I wanted to help people out, so I did just that. But what really warmed my heart was seeing other people actually send money to the people who I didn’t get a chance to get back to.

“The comments under those tweets were almost like a little community of everyone helping everyone. It made me very emotional and reminded me that the Internet can be a good place. It proved to me that night how special community spirit truly is.

‘‘We’re all fighting this silent killer together. We’ll battle through it together. And we’ll come out on the other side together.”

As well as his Youtube channel Adam has more than 500,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok.