Sophia and Dagan (Sophia's dad) are going to do a 5km swim to help raise money for Sophia's friend Lily and to make more awareness through fundraising about Wiedemann-Steiner Syndrome on the 21st December. Sophia swims for City of Southampton Swimming Club and with the support from Head Coach Matt and Sophia's coach Jodie, Sophia and Dagan will do this 5km challenge during one of Sophia's training sessions. Dagan and Sophia have set out a training programme over the next 2 months as well as Sophia still doing squad training as this will be the furthest Sophia has swam.

Sophia's amazing friend Lily has a rare condition called Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome (WSS for short). The effects that WSS can have on Lily are developmental delays, learning difficulties, sleep problems, digestion/feeding issues, unusual facial features, short stature, hypotonia, co-ordination problems, dental problems and hypertrichosis.

Lily and her family have been looking into ways to help Lily gain a bit more independence as she grows older. They have done research into a fully trained assistance dog and have spoken to accredited trainers and have agreed that Lily would benefit from having an assistance dog, it will help Lily on some of those days she finds difficult.

The family have committed to raise £23,000 this will enable the process of finding a suitable puppy to train for Lily and complete the 2 year training period to make this dream come true for Lily.

Sophia has done sponsored swims for charities in the past in 2021 she did a 1 mile Swim for Southampton children's hospital where her brother is under the lung specialist team and in 2022 Sophia took part in the 22 miles swim over 12 weeks to raise money for Diabetes UK one of those swims she completed her 2 mile swim.

Thank you for your support and we will post updates as the weeks go on.