Lewis Capaldi has been praised by a mother of a teenager with Tourette's syndrome after his 'powerful' Glastonbury performance.
The West Lothian singer, 26, who was diagnosed with Tourette's last year, took to the stage on Saturday evening on the Pyramid Stage to belt out his beloved ballads. During the performance, Lewis could be seen struggling with his voice and tics on stage as fans belted out the lyrics back to support him in an incredible moment.
Laura Hummersone from Farnborough, Hampshire, told PA news agency: "I think he did more for Tourette's than any charity or education on the topic in all the times I've known about Tourette's. I was in tears."
The 50-year-old watched the performance with her son Harry, 19, who gradually started smiling from seeking solace in the fact he and Capaldi both had similar tics.
"[Capaldi] was openly ticing and my son tries to suppress his most of the time when he's out, which means that when he comes home, he has these huge tic attacks where he can barely do anything", she said.
"Some of the tics that Lewis was doing were tics that my son does on a regular daily basis, jerking the head."
Harry was diagnosed with Tourette's when he was five and a half and Laura said her son's tics were so bad at one point she had to quit the job she had at the time for 12 years to look after him.
"Because of his head tics at one point, he couldn't stand up", she said.
"It was so violent and also he couldn't feed himself... and sometimes he would hit his head on the door frame and knock himself out. That's what Tourette's is like to live with."
She added the level of support from the crowd was inspiring to see, as she detailed her own son's experiences.
"The acceptance, tolerance, understanding, empathy and compassion which the crowd showed yesterday was phenomenal", she said.
"Harry's friends have been really sweet about his tics, but during primary school we had parents taking their kids out of school because they didn't like the ticing.
"I wanted Harry to see the love from that crowd - nobody cared about Lewis' ticing, they were carrying him through and little things like that show it is nothing to be ashamed of. That's the big thing."
She said Capaldi also did a "brilliant" job of highlighting Tourette's does not necessarily mean you will have swearing as a tic. "Most of the time, it isn't about swearing", she added.
"I think the condition is still so misunderstood and people think you only tic when stressed. With Lewis, he was ticing doing something he loved - sometimes it distracts you from what you're doing, other times it doesn't.
"So his performance was amazingly powerful."
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