X FACTOR winner Perrie Edwards will be coming to Weymouth to say a special thank you to all her supporters.

The family of X Factor winner Perrie Edwards have thanked the Weymouth community for helping her girl band to victory and said they were looking forward to her visit to the town. Former Radipole Primary School pupil Perrie, 18, and her Little Mix bandmates made history when they beat Marcus Collins to the top spot on Sunday night.

Perrie’s mum, Debbie Dufty, said: “It has been absolutely fantastic, we are all over the moon.

“We want to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for making Perrie’s dream come true.

“It was the best night of our lives and it was so emotional.

“I was trying to keep it together but as soon as they started singing Silent Night, that was it – I just couldn’t hold it back any longer.”

Perrie, who lived in Weymouth before moving to South Shields, auditioned for the X Factor as a solo singer but was asked by the judges to form a group with three other hopefuls – Jade Thirwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jesy Nelson.

Little Mix will now battle it out for the Christmas number one spot with their cover of Damien Rice’s Cannonball.

Early predictions suggest the girl band could now go on to earn £8million from record sales and endorsements.

Debbie said: “That’s unbelievable – it’s like winning the lottery.

“I said to Perrie: ‘What am I supposed to get you for Christmas now? What do you get the winner of the X Factor for Christmas, when they’re predicting money like that?

“She said: ‘Mum, all I would like from you is a Yorkshire pudding and some mashed potato.’ “But I think if the girls could get to number one that would be a great Christmas present.”

Little Mix have already been set to work on their future as pop stars, but Perrie’s family are hopeful that she will visit Weymouth over Christmas.

Debbie said: “Perrie will be spending Christmas with the family and having a well deserved rest after all the hard work the girls have been putting in.

“We’re definitely hoping to visit Weymouth at some point.

“It’s crazy to look back and think that she wasn’t even going to audition, it was only me pushing that made her.

“Then to have someone as big as Gary Barlow telling her she is the best singer in the band – wow.

“I hope she’ll be listening to her mum’s advice a lot more in future.”

Headteacher Veronique Singer, of Radipole Primary School, said: “We're really proud that a former pupil of ours has won the X Factor.

“What we're really hoping is that Perrie comes and visits us. The children would love to see her, they would be so excited.

“Perrie was here in the Reception class and Year One, so hopefully we were instrumental in giving her that sound interest in music and performance – we're very strong on performing here.

“All the older children know about X Factor and know who Perrie is. We’ve all been supporting her. We hope she can find time in her busy schedule to pop in and see us.”