Mel C's tears during Africa trip

Published Thursday, 14 March 2013
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Singer Melanie Chisholm broke down in tears during a charity trip to Africa earlier this year after meeting a young girl forced to work to provide for her family.

Mel C's tears during Africa trip

The former Spice Girls star tackled a tough five-day boating trip up Africa's Zambezi river for Comic Relief, and during the trek she visited a slum in Musaka, where she met locals who will benefit from the charity organisation's fundraising.

Chisholm spoke to an 11-year-old girl named Cynthia, who had put her dreams of becoming a teacher on hold because her mother couldn't afford to pay for her education.

The youngster explained that she does all the household chores and washes other families' clothes to earn money, prompting Chisholm to say: "Wow Cynthia, that's a lot of work for anybody to do, especially someone who should be out having fun and learning stuff."

Finding out about Cynthia's job aspirations, Chisholm cried as she added: "I just find it incredible that if you speak to kids where I live, they wanna be a star, they wanna be a celebrity, they wanna have lots of money, they want all of these ridiculous things... Cynthia would like to be a teacher."

The singer then apologised to the youngster as she choked back tears, saying: "Sorry Cynthia, I'm being a baby."

The clip was shown during the TV special, which aired on Thursday night.

Chisholm and other celebrities like actress Chelsee Healey and comedian Jack Dee took part in the mission to raise cash for Comic Relief.

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1 Comments
Mary in London wrote (50 days ago):
She's just amazing! So down to earth! It's a shame she doesn't get the huge success which she REALLY deserves!!
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