A nine-year-old “sports-mad” Cwmbran girl is swimming 1,000 metres in July to raise money for her football team while she recovers from injury.
Bethany Lewis broke her femur while playing at a friend’s birthday party in May and is now using a wheelchair while she recovers.
Amy, her mum, told Cwmbran Life her daughter has been involved in sports since she was 19-months old: “She is sports-mad. She plays football, cricket and swims. We can’t keep her inside.
“She loves being outside playing sport.”
The injury left Bethany feeling “heartbroken” with months of recovery ahead.
“Her lovely, lovely football team (Llanyrafon FC under ten girls) made her a happy wishes video”, said Amy, “It got her through. You’ve never been so proud of a little group of nine and ten-year-olds.
“She’s back in the pool and played cricket in her wheelchair this morning [Sunday 30 June 2024).”
A couple of weeks ago, she showed her mum a note she had written about wanting to raise money to buy her football mates a new team strip. Her challenge is to swim 1,000 metres during July. Within 24-hours of the GoFundMe page going live, she’d collected over £400, and now set her sights on getting enough money to also buy new goalposts for her team.
Amy said: “The best thing is, it’s keeping her motivated to swim. It’s so lovely to see young children know what a team means. They know at heart that one of their team is struggling and needs helps. I’m as proud of them as a team as I am of her.”
The team had its annual awards night last Saturday and Bethany picked up the clubwoman of the year trophy.
“She was so excited,” Amy added.
Sponsor Bethany
Visit Bethany’s GoFundMe page to sponsor her.
“Hi, my name is Bethany and I broke my femur on the 18th May, on the 23rd of May I had surgery to fit a plate and screws to fix my leg. I was in hospital for 2 weeks so I missed my football tour and also all my tournaments but my friends in my football team helped me by sending me videos, getting me the best gifts and visiting. I am still in a wheelchair but I can still do one of my sports, swimming I want to do a sponsored swim to raise money for my team to purchase kit ready for when I can go back to football. I want to swim 1000 meters in the month of July, I still can’t walk but I can swim, I hope I can do it. Please sponsor me and I will try my best. It will help me strengthen my leg and help my team.”
Bethany Lewis’ message on her GoFundMe page
