Schoolgirl singer Zo Mace's plans to sell a second album for charity have come up against a £13,000 hurdle which is threatening to eat into her fundraising profits.

Zoe Mace and her sister Jodie The 10-year-old is due to release the 12-track CD later this month to raise money for the Down's Syndrome Association.

Called Songs for My Sister, it is dedicated to Zo's four-year-old sister Jodie, who was born with the condition and died in March following heart surgery.

But organisers have now been given a £12,800 bill by the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, which collects fees on behalf of music copyright owners.

Celebrity agent and former TVAM producer Mike Hollingsworth, who is working for Zo and her family, said the bill was a financial blow which could put them £15,000 over their small budget set aside to produce the compilation of folk, jazz and opera.

He said: "We were rather shocked because MCPS originally quoted us £4,000, and that was budgeted into our

Continued on Page Two costs. They rang us last week and said the calculations came to a different number. What we need now is a large one-off donation from someone, so we can pay this without it eating into the CD sales."

Zo's mother Linda, of Witney Road, Freeland, said the first MCPS bill was £19,000, until Cokethorpe School music teacher Ben Heaney waved copyright on the three tracks he wrote and arranged.

But without a financial lifeline, she said the amount would still impact on the CD sales, because the DSA was already expected to get only £3 from each £9.99 disc after all the budgeted costs, including VAT.

She said: "What's happened is that we decided to change a few tracks to make it more commercial. I kept phoning MCPS to let them know, but no-one ever came back to me to ask us if we realised the bill would be much more than £4,000.

"We can't not launch the CD now. It sounds great and Jodie is living on through this album.

"We have had to keep the budget fairly tight anyway, so if we could just find a decent donation we could pay this off."

The Mace family was determined to produce Zo's second album professionally after the success of her first CD Little Ray of Light last Christmas.

The eight-track disc was recorded free of charge and only sold in Oxfordshire, but raised £27,000 for the Oxford Children's Hospital -- chosen by Zo as a thank you to staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, who had looked after Jodie since she was born.

Songs for My Sister has been produced by Andy Lovegrove, who has worked stars like Supergrass and Badly Drawn Boy.

It is being sold distributed nationally and will be linked to the UK Charts.

A spokesman for the MCPS confirmed that track changes on the album had hiked up the original quote.

He said: "The album's original track list included a lot of pubic domain songs not covered by copyright, but the new tracks are held by copyright.

"What we've done is helped find the most cost effective way for them to produce this CD, and we understand Mrs Mace is now thinking about talking to some of the copyright holders to see if there is any way of getting the cost down.

"We act as agents for the copyright holders. If there are any decisions about leeway, it's up to them to decide that."