Hucknall youngster is giving up his tech for a week for Children in Need

From Monday, November 13, Harry Dale, aged nine, who goes to Leen Mills Primary School, will not be touching his X-Box, tablet or even TV for a whole week.

And he’s getting his family involved too.

Although his mum, Rachel Cort will need to use her phone and laptop for her job, she has promised to keep the TV off for the week at the family home on Knightsbridge Gardens.

Rachel, aged 36, said: “Harry decided to do this when he saw an advert on TV which featured a little boy going to bed hungry and it upset him and he asked if we could give him £20.

"So I said to him, ‘why don’t you come up with a fundraising idea’ and the next morning he decided he was giving up his X-Box for a week.

Rachel and Harry set up a fundraising page at justgiving.com/page/rachel-cort-1699219973664 – and Harry’s challenge quickly caught people’s attention.

Rachel said: “It just spiralled and as the money’s come in, it’s led to him now declaring that we’re not even having the telly on next week.

"I will have to work so I will need my phone and my laptop but we have agreed that as a family, we won’t have the telly on in the evenings either."

For Harry, giving up his tech is a big thing as, according to Rachel, he ‘lives and breathes it’.

She continued: “We have a funny quote in the family which is ‘gamers don’t touch grass’, which he says every time I suggest trying to get outside for a bit.

Harry’s school is also getting invovled in helping him achieve his goal, even going as far as to have him do his computing lesson with pen and paper instead for this one time.

And Rachel is wondering if a week off the tech might convince Harry to spend a little less time on it in future.

She laughed: “That would be nice, I don’t know if he might find he enjoys doing something other than tech for a week and finds that actually it’s quite nice to get out in the fresh air – we’ll have to see.”