Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dundee girl, 9, raised more than £7,000 for charities after completing 5th Kiltwalk

Kiltwalk Dundee
Catherine Letford has completed her 5th Kiltwalk. Steve Brown / DCT Media

A Dundee nine-year-old has raised more than £7,000 for charities after completing her 5th Kiltwalk.

Catherine Letford, who was just five-years-old when she started taking part in the Kiltwalks, has raised £7,701 for charities over the past five years.

During her first walk, in which she raised money for Glenlaw House in Dundee, Catherine wanted to take part as it seemed like a fun thing to do.

Mum Dawn-Marie said: “The first one was just initially we’ll take part because it’s a fun thing, lets get our kilts on and have a wee walk.

Kiltwalk Dundee
Catherine completed her first Kiltwalk at just five-years-old. Steve Brown / DCT Media

“But as you walk about and hear stories about other people, what they’re doing and what they’re doing it for, then you realise how important it is to do.

“When she did the first one, it was like she got the buzz – she raised quite a bit of money on the first one, she wanted to do it again.

“It’s just become a yearly thing that she wants to do and raise money for local charities in Dundee.”

Charities

The charities are all Catherine’s choice, with her family guiding her to the different organisations out there.

Dawn-Marie said: “Catherine decides who she wants to raise for. She’ll maybe say I want to help children or I want to help disabled or elderly and we go though them with her and she decides who she wants to choose.

“For her second one, the school she’s at has a hearing impaired unit, so she wanted to do it to benefit the Tayside Deaf Hub, in Dundee, so that could possibly help the pupils in her class.”

Catherine also raised money for Ward 29 at Ninewells hospital and twice for Dundee Bairns.

Despite the strain of the Kiltwalk, Catherine was up for the challenge.

Kiltwalk Dundee
Catherine has raised more than £7,000 for charity. Steve Brown / DCT Media

Taking part in dancing and loving to be outside on her bike or scooter, Catherine is already very active.

Her mum added: “Not that we’ve been on holiday, but during lockdown we’ve been walking five miles a day after her school work.

“So she is quite fit. And when we do go on holiday, we do touring holidays, weekends away, we do a lot of walking on that, so she is used to walking.”

Virtual challenge

The past few years of the Kiltwalk have been virtual events due to the pandemic, but Catherine still wanted to take part.

Dawn-Marie said that it was a bit different, and the virtual event lost some of the “buzz” previous events had.

Kiltwalk Dundee
Catherine hopes to continue to take part in the Kiltwalk. Steve Brown / DCT Media

She added: “It’s just not the same. You’re basically on your own – although this time we did meet a lot of people who were doing the same. But the first year we didn’t see anybody.

“It’s not got the same buzz because you’ve got the music at the start, everyone is in a great mood, you’ve got the kilties cheering you on.

“The virtual one, there’s no toilet facilities so you have to be mindful of what you’re drinking. There’s just none of that atmosphere.”

However, Catherine wants to continue taking part in the future, with Dawn-Marie adding: “Once you’ve done one, you do get a buzz and it’s become like a yearly thing now, but we always ask her if she wants to do it.

“So she’s quite happy to do it. And hopefully it’ll soon be back to normal and get back to how it used to be!”