Nine year old Katie was suffering in silence. After falling out with a friend, she found herself the subject of a fierce bullying campaign at school. Unfortunately Katie felt that she couldn’t talk to her father about her problem, but things were so bad she needed to speak out. Finally Katie decided to call ChildLine, and over the next month she spoke regularly with her counsellor, Justin.

Just by putting her feelings she had been bottling up into words built up enough confidence to be able to talk to her dad about it. To her surprise he explained that he, too, had been bullied as a child. "I couldn’t believe that someone as popular as my dad could ever have been called names,” recalls Katie.

Her father arranged a meeting with her head teacher to discuss how the school could help Katie. The meeting was very positive: it prompted the school to pilot an anti-bullying programme, using ChildLine’s support system, whereby children help each other with their problems. And Katie was thrilled to be asked to be a key member.

By giving her an opportunity to speak her mind, ChildLine helped Katie communicate her feelings to her family, and now she’s fighting back against the bullies. “Bullying isn’t seen as cool anymore,” she says. “Being anti-bullying is now much cooler.”