girl asks for donation to aid cancer sufferer
Katherine, 10, helps sick child via Xmas wish
Published:
A 10-year-old Aberdeenshire girl has helped bring together a South African child suffering from leukaemia with its family this year, through her Christmas wish list.
When Katherine Buchan of Brownhills, near Hatton of Fintray, wrote her letter to Santa she also asked for a donation to the Zoe-Lee Foundation. The charity was founded by Ellon couple Alistair and Moira Stenton in 2005 after their niece died of leukaemia in Cape Town, just a month before her second birthday.
Since then the foundation has brought together several children receiving cancer treatment with parents who can rarely visit the hospital because of poverty or the long distances involved.
Arrangements are now being made for another child, who is alone while undergoing months of chemotherapy and other treatment in Cape Town, to receive visits from loved ones.
The cost will be met through the £30 donation from Katherine, who is a pupil at Albyn School in Aberdeen, and a further £100 given to the charity by The Language Factory, an educational initiative founded in Aberdeen that teaches youngsters foreign languages through music and song.
Katherine’s mother, Marion, said: “I had heard about work done by the foundation, and she thought it was a wonderful thing to bring sick children together with their families. Katherine came up with the wish-list suggestion all on her own, without any prompting from parents.”
Mr Stenton, of Patey Road, Ellon, said: “We are absolutely delighted, and more than a little humbled, by such touching generosity from a 10-year-old.
“We will now be able to set up our first reunion of 2010 thanks to these donations.”
Arrangements are already being finalised with the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and a Catholic home in Cape Town.
The charity is hoping to set up a house near the hospital to provide free accommodation to families of children battling leukaemia.
Full details of the Zoe-Lee Foundation are available online at www.zoeleefoundation.org.uk
The foundation is now recruiting runners for the Edinburgh Marathon, Scottish Half Marathon and Team relay charity event being held on May 23. Anyone willing to support the cause can register online at www.edinburgh-marathon.com
