Child mental health on Strictly Kate’s mind

NEWSREADER Kate Silverton has said she wants to use her

Strictly Come Dancing turn as a platform to raise awareness about children’s mental health.

BBC anchor Silverton, inset, studied psychology at the University of Durham and her experiences as a mother of two children have encouraged her to train as a children’s counsellor.

Ahead of her first appearance on the TV dancing competition tonight, the journalist was asked if she was excited for viewers to see a different side of her personality.

Silverton said: “Yes. I love my job and I love what I have achieved professionally. I’m looking at Strictly as a little bubble on its own.

“I actually want to use it to talk more about children’s mental health, which is another serious topic. “So I’m doing a lot more on mental health next year and brain science, working with a lot of psychiatrists and doing some documentaries. So this is like this lovely, joyful interlude.” Silverton works with children’s mental health charities including the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and Place2Be. Having reported from the front line in both Afghanistan and Iraq, she added that she was looking forward to working in a less serious environment and planned to “immerse myself and genuinely have that gleeful joy”. Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One tonight at 7.35pm.