THE five-year-old little girl who learned to speak through her love of swimming opened Burnley’s Big Swim 2012.
Olivia Loftus was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia when, aged two-and-a-half, she still had not uttered a single word.
Her mum, Kelly Loftus, a teaching assistant, has credited swimming lessons for her dramatic turnaround.
Olivia, now a Burnley Aquatics swimming club member, was selected to be Burnley’s ambassador for the countywide Big Swim 2012 event on Saturday.
The youngster, from Ightenhill, Burnley, kicked off the Padiham leg of the event by swimming six lengths.
The event was designed to encourage more people to swim ahead of the Olympics.
Keen swimmers at 13 pools completed 2,012 lengths between 1pm and 4pm.
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