AN extraordinary Bacup youngster has defied doctors’ predictions by learning to swim.

Six-year-old Sophia Harding has cerebral palsy, a motor condition that causes physical disability in development, and hydrocephalus, water on the brain.

From birth, the St Saviour’s Primary School pupil has baffled doctors, who said she would not live past a few days old, with her pure determination.

Now the brave youngster, who is at risk of suffering a fatal stroke each day, has achieved an impor-tant personal goal.

Sophia, who had a fear of water, has swum five metres unaided.

The youngster, who has a shunt in her neck to control the pressure in her brain, has private swimming lessons with Michelle Annett, at DW Sports, in Bury.

Her devoted mum Jennifer Harding, a health care assistant at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, said: “Sophia is such an amazing little girl and achieving this goal means the world to her.

“She has undergone 16 brain operations, and since the last oper- ation in America she has come on in leaps and bounds.

“She has just started to realise that she is different to other children in her class, which is heartbreaking.

"Sophia does PE, but just not the same as everyone else as she can’t walk and is confined to a wheelchair.

“Doctors don’t know how long she will live, so we get through each day as it comes.

“Everybody who works with Sophia, including her swimming teacher and her one-on-one helper at school, are really proud of her.”

Sophia lives in Brambling Drive, Bacup, with her mum, dad, and two sisters.

Mrs Harding said: “Sophia absolutely loves swimming now and it’s lovely to see her excited about getting into the water.

“It’s been hard on the family being in and out of hospital, so it’s lovely to see her doing well.”