A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl is planning to swim the English Channel distance to help other children.

Little Lauren Smith, from Tyldesley, intends to swim 22 miles in the Sharron Davies Challenge before the end of the year to raise money for children with muscular dystrophy.

The Garrett Hall pupil has been swimming since she was three-and- a-half and now swims at Walkden pool three or four times a week.

She has earned 21 badges in distances of up to 200 metres as well as water safety and basic life-saving skills.

Thoughtful Lauren became particularly keen to take up the challenge to swim the equivalent of the distance from England to France when she saw a picture of a child in a wheelchair on the front of a Sharron Davies Challenge leaflet.

Lauren's mum, Margaret, said: "Last year she broke her leg and had to spend five weeks in a wheelchair. When she saw the picture of the little girl in a wheelchair she wanted to know what it was about. When we told her she immediately wanted to do it as she said she knew what it was like to be in a wheelchair." The 22 miles -- 1,408 lengths -- can be added up each time Lauren goes swimming, they can even be counted when she is on holiday. She has already managed to tot up 112 lengths in a fortnight and if she keeps going at this rate -- 50 or 60 lengths a week -- she will have finished by October.

Margaret said: "Swimming is Lauren's thing. She loves it and I'd be very shocked if she didn't keep it up in the future. When she's in the water the rest of the world just disappears."

Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies said: "I think it's great youngsters such as Lauren take part in the challenges and make such an effort help others.

"Twenty-two miles is quite a challenge for a six-year-old and I wish her the best of luck."