Kate's 13-hour silence will be word perfect for charities

BEING quiet is something young children can find incredibly hard to do.

But despite the difficulty, seven-year-old Kate Sutherland has challenged herself not to utter a sound – for a whole day.

The Buckstone Primary pupil has organised her own sponsored silence tomorrow, in which she has set herself a target of remaining silent for a total of 13 hours.

Kate has already raised 168 in sponsorship, which she will donate to Breast Cancer Care and Simpsons Special Care Babies – an Edinburgh-based children's charity dedicated to the care of premature or sick newborn babies.

Kate's mum Rosie, 39, said: "One of our neighbours, who is also a friend, has breast cancer and Kate saw her lose her hair and get a wig, and she felt sad and wanted to raise money to help.

"Kate's older sister Emma, ten, was seven weeks premature and Kate has been looking at photos of her sister as a baby in the hospital with all these tubes, and she gets quite sad about it.

"She couldn't decide which charity to donate the money to, so she's going to divide it between Breast Cancer Care and Special Care Babies."

Mrs Sutherland, who runs her own entertainment company, added: "Kate came up with the idea for the sponsored silence herself. She said, 'mummy, this is what I want to do and this is what I want to do it for'."

Kate's teacher at Buckstone Primary will provide her with a white board to answer any questions on the day.

The primary three pupil, who lives in Fairmilehead, must not speak to anyone between 7am and 8pm, although she will be given "three chances" during the day. She plans to count up her sponsorship money tomorrow night, and will deliver half the money to Simpsons Special Care Babies with her mum on Monday after school.

Mrs Sutherland added:"Once Kate makes up her mind about something she's pretty determined, and I think she'll have no problems."

Kate even plans to write a sign saying "remember, don't talk", which she will place next to her bed to remind her of the sponsored silence when she wakes up tomorrow morning.

In May last year Emma organised a fair at the family house, which raised more than 500 for Simpsons Special Care Babies, and she plans to hold another fair in May this year.

"I think that's maybe where Kate's inspiration for giving something back came from," said Mrs Sutherland.

To sponsor Kate e-mail rosie.sutherland@blue yonder.co.uk