Susan Boyle Gives Up Treats For Charity

Singing sensation Susan Boyle is to give up candy for a special charity close to her heart.

Susan will give up her favorite treats for Lent – until Easter – to benefit Sciaf (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), the charity her mother was collecting for when she died in 2007, aged 91.

“I’m personally giving up chocolate – apart from it being too fattening, I think the money raised will be phenomenal,” she said.

Susan has helped the charity launch the Wee Box, Big Change Lent campaign – an initiative that encourages people to give up their favorite foods for Lent and donate the money they save.

According to the charity: "The focus of this year’s campaign is the work that SCIAF does in Haiti: both the emergency work following the earthquake and the long-term development work that SCIAF has been doing in the country since 1987. Even before the earthquake, extreme poverty, natural disasters, climate change, political instability and violence meant that the majority of the population faced a daily struggle to survive.

“For rural families living in remote mountainous areas, growing enough food to survive in these conditions is extremely tough. Deforestation is also a major issue in Haiti, there is only 3% tree cover, which means that the soil is of a very poor quality. Add in cyclones, hurricanes and flashfloods that can wipe away harvests in one fell swoop and it’s easy to see why hunger remains an issue and why families are often left with absolutely nothing to eat.”

The charity presented Susan with a silk flower recovered from a cathedral wrecked during the earthquake in Haiti.

“The wee box brings back a lot of memories for me because it has been a charity which is very close to my heart,” she said. “My mother used to have wee boxes such as this one in the house and, just before she passed away, she began collecting for Sciaf so this brings back a lot of memories for me personally. It is very personal and there is a strong message of hope.”

Find out more here.