'I knew side of Liam Payne others didn't - he helped others like George Michael'

The woman lining up in the queue for the food bank that morning couldn’t believe her eyes.

There in front of her was superstar diligently stacking tins of baked beans on the shelves….and her jaw dropped.

about his volunteering at a food bank, in London’s Euston.

For a man who - on the face of it at least - had everything, I was struck by how generous-spirited it was giving his time for free to help others.

But his passion for social justice ran deep, and was a constant theme whenever our paths crossed over the last 14 years.

He was acutely aware of the global platform he had, and the responsibility weighed heavily around his neck.

Take his work with foodbanks which he did under the radar…and probably would have preferred to remain that way.

But he knew that by going public would help drive awareness, which is why he sat down with me, back in 2020.

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Like many, he was left deeply upset by families struggling to eat under the crippling financial pressure caused by the nation going into lockdown during Covid.

“It's terrible people need food banks anyway but now, it's getting worse and worse,” he told me, adding how he spent the day packaging up food parcels for the homeless.

It reminded me of ’s extraordinary acts of generosity, when I learned Liam donated cash to fund 360,000 food parcels to the Trussell Trust, which supports the UK's foodbanks network.

I’ve always wondered where this desire to give back came from. Especially given most celebs refuse to get their hands dirty and hide behind an army of assistants and enablers.

Perhaps it stems from his childhood. Liam was born “effectively dead” with doctors having to bring him round, and was in and out of hospital with kidney problems as a toddler.

He told me that he felt like he owed a personal debt to the , and maybe it was this sense of having a second chance in life that drove him on to help others

His generosity also extended to - which was another issue he felt passionate about.

After witnessing first hand the horrors of knife-crime after being robbed as a child, he felt a huge responsibility to urge his young fans to shun knives.

"You pick up that blade and it's the biggest risk you are taking in your life,” he told me, while urging the Government to address the issues head on.

Throughout all of our chats you got the sense he was a deep thinker, his emotions never far from the surface. Lockdown was clearly a tough time for him.

“The thing that I'm trying to remember in my head is there are going to be bad days,” he said once.

“There are going to be some days where you feel a bit down. But as long as you know that, you can kind of battle your way through it a little bit.”

But again - typically Liam - he felt opening up about his own struggles would help others. “If you know somebody who's a little bit lonely or is struggling, reach out to them,” he said.

In the last few months, I'd had some informal discussions with his team about him doing to raise awareness of men’s mental health.

It’s just desperately sad he never got the opportunity to help others again...

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