Sunderland schoolgirl raises more than £100 for charity with 'readathon' challenge

A Sunderland schoolgirl has raised over £100 for charity by taking on a ‘readathon’ challenge to read five ‘long books’ in just one week.

Christ’s College pupil Sarah Dada, 13, decided to do the challenge as part of a wider school initiative to raise money for the charity Christian Aid.

Now in Year 9, “avid reader” Sarah joined the school in Year 7 after moving from Nigeria when her mother enrolled to study medicine at the University of Sunderland.

She said: “I love reading and get through a lot of books anyway, and so when we talked about how the school could raise money for Christian Aid I thought I would like to tackle a readathon on my own.

“The books were all in excess of 250 pages long and the last one had 360. I really enjoyed it and I want to do it again.”

Christ's College principal Julie Normanton said: “As a Christian Ethos school, we always encourage our students to look outward and encourage them to make a difference to the lives of others.

“We support charities throughout the year, including a Christmas toy appeal, an Easter egg collection, a shoebox appeal, a harvest collection and we also encourage students to support local community projects.

“We were keen to look more broadly this time by supporting Christian Aid Week and challenged students to come up with their own fund raising initiatives.

“I am delighted with the response from our school community, including Sarah’s reading challenge, fun runs, cake sales, a ‘wet sponge the teacher’ event and car washes.

“Sarah has done magnificently well to get through so many books. Having read five long books in the space of a week, she has subsequently committed to extending the challenge to complete another five.

“We’re very proud of her achievement and of the impact this fundraising will have on communities around the world.”

Sarah hopes to study Law when she leaves school and to one day become a solicitor.

Christian Aid strives to help people in the developing world to escape the ‘poverty trap’.