An eight-year-old Hackney schoolgirl is set to swim 1.5 km to raise money for charity.

Freya Duckworth is planning to do the sponsored swim as part of the Sport Relief Swimathon in March – even though she has only been allowed in a pool without an adult since August.

Her mother, Beverley Duckworth said: “She loves swimming and has been challenging herself to swim further.

“We were taking her younger brother for swimming lessons. She’d just turned eight and got in the pool by herself for the first time and swam 25 lengths straight off. The next time she swam even further.”

Freya and her parents started looking into ways that she could push her swimming further and settled on the Sport Relief swim because it was a chance to take to the water in the Olympic Pool.

Ms Duckworth said: “We were lucky enough to go to a diving event at the Diving World Cup in the Aquatics Centre where we saw Tom Daley.

“Freya was also really inspired by the Olympics and kept a notebook where she recorded Great Britain’s position in each event.”

The determined Year 4 pupil at Millfields School in Hilsea Road, Lower Clapton, has been training twice a week outside school and has also been having school swimming lessons for the first time.

The dedication has left her parents very proud.

Ms Duckworth said: “None of the rest of the family are big swimmers, although her dad has recently started swimming more and Freya has been helping him with his technique.

“We’re really impressed at her commitment to getting so much further than she has ever swum before.”