Poppy truly embodies the essence of Roy Castle’s famous lyric – ‘dedication’s what you need’.

She is a proud member of Girlguiding UK and is currently working towards her charity Brownie badge by entering our Swimming the Distance challenge. Poppy is swimming in memory of her grandma and chose to take part as she wants to help fund research, so that fewer people experience losing their loved ones.

“Grandma was my best friend” she said. “When I was smaller, we would spend hours together reading Julia Donaldson books.

“When I was looking through my Brownie badge book, I chose to do the charity badge because I wanted to do something to help people that were poorly like my grandma. Then my friend Louise found the Swimming the Distance challenge! I love swimming, so it was perfect for me.

“By the end of the Summer Holidays, I’m hoping to swim a whole mile. It’s going to be hard, but I think I can do it. Louise and I are doing a little bit every day and having lots of fun – we’ve completed 56 lengths of the pool so far – just 9 to go…!

“We set my fundraising target at £150, I can’t believe I have already beaten it. It’s great that the money is raised in memory of Grandma.”

Poppy’s mum, Carly, is understandably very proud of her daughter’s fundraising.

She said: “We’re all really delighted with what Poppy is doing – she’s always been a water baby! When she was very small, she loved splashing about in the bath.

“Poppy is blind and uses a wheelchair to get around, so swimming is quite a challenge for her, but she has definitely risen to it.”

“Poppy used to do hydrotherapy with the visual impairment team in Warrington which she absolutely loved. She is determined to swim the full mile by herself and raise money for such a good cause. It’s been our friend Louise in the pool with her every day, so I’d like to say a huge thank you to her, as I know she’s having lots of fun!

“Poppy’s Grandma was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2019. We were lucky that she responded well to treatments, so we were able to make lots of memories in the time she had. Poppy misses her grandma a lot and wants to help other grandparents like her.”

Keep up to date with Poppy’s progress and show your support by kindly donating to her Just Giving page here.