Vision impaired Wonthaggi girl Amy Hodson is swimming to help sick kids this month

Amy Hodson has spent much of her short life in hospital wards, with the experiences now motivating her to help other sick kids. Find out how.

A Wonthaggi Swimmer who is swimming laps to change lives this month has smashed her fundraising goal of $1,500 by raising almost $8,000.

Young vision impaired swimmer Amy Hodson, 10, has taken on the challenge of swimming 20km in February to raise money for the Starlight Children's Foundation.

“I want to help sick kids in the hospital because I was once one of those sick kids in the hospital,” Amy said.

At just eight weeks old little Amy she went under the knife at the Royal Children's Hospital due to a rare cataract on her right eye.

Also born with hip dysplasia, she spent the first year and a bit of her life in hip braces and many of the years afterwards seeing doctors for appointments and further eye surgeries.

Now 10, Amy lives with limited vision in her right eye.

“All I see is blur,” she said.

Amy has been swimming with the South Gippsland Bass Swimming Club for just on a year and said she had to sign up when she heard about the challenge.

Ten-year-old vision impaired swimmer, Amy Hodson from Wonthaggi, is raising money to help sick kids in hospital.

“I love swimming. When I heard about the challenge I thought, I want to do it because adults help kids all the time but it’s hard for kids to help kids and with this challenge, I can help sick kids and swim at the same time,” she said.

One day Amy hopes to swim in the Olympics and is training very hard to get there.

She dives in three times a week and swims about 2km per session.

Her coaches will help her record every lap she swims and she will also complete extra swims to help her to reach her goal.

“My initial goal was $500 with a swim of 16km but with the support of family, friends, and the local community, I raised $500 within the first 48 hours, so as a thank you to everyone who donated, I decided to increase my goal to a 20km swim,” said Amy.

Amy hopes to “just raise as much as she can”.

Amy’s father Brad said seeing his daughter in hospital at such a young age was “extremely frightening”.

“Everything about it is scary. That lack of control is terrible,” he said.

Four-time Olympian and triple gold medallist, Drew Ginn, recently met Amy and her family and donated to Amy’s challenge.

Amy said it would “mean a lot” if people could support her on her journey to help sick kids.

The Starlight Super Swim is aiming to raise $2M this year to help provide wishes to over 51,000 sick children.

The challenge ends on February 28 after Amy’s swimming training that night at the Wonthaggi YMCA.

Support Amy in her Super Swim challenge here.