A MIRACLE toddler who learned to walk against the odds has set out on a fundraising challenge to support the hospital which helped her survive.

Clara Healy was born 16 weeks premature, weighing a tiny1.3lbs, and staff at Glasgow Children's Hospital warned doting parents Sophie Cameron and Corey Healy she may not survive.

But, the brave youngster has worked tirelessly to overcome every obstacle and, despite being diagnosed with Global Learning Delay due to her early arrival she took her first steps just after Christmas.

Sophie, from Cumbernauld, said: "It was incredible. We had been working so hard from March last year, she didn't know how to put one foot in front of the other.

"Then she could kind of manage it if you were holding her because she has a weak core muscle, but then she started to gain confidence and she was walking."

Sophie had hoped Clara would be able to cross the finish line at last year's Oor Wullie's Big Bucket Trail but she wasn't quite strong enough.

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Instead, Clara, who is non-verbal but communicates through her own signs, will take on a 24-mile walk - the average number of miles parents with sick children travel to visit each day.

The tot had an initial target of #2,500 but she's already smashed it earning more than #2,700 for the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity which guided her parents through after Clara's shock birth.

Sophie said: "The hospital were amazing, a really great support. They didn't want to label her.

"They were looking at medical books but Clara follows her own rules."

"It was a healthy pregnancy until my waters broke at 24 weeks and one day. They have no reason why it happened," she added.

"I then got an infection in hospital which turned into sepsis so they had to do an emergency delivery.

"They were taking it a minute at a time. It was a crucial 24 hours because she had also contracted Septicaemia."

Clara spent the first six months of her life in hospital as her parents clung to the hope they'd be able to take her home soon.

"Premature babies are supposed to follow a pattern but she was all over the place," the 26-year-old added.

"We didn't know if she would live. We got a phone call on Easter Sunday in 2017 telling us to come in straight away because they thought they would have to take her off life support.

"She's a wee miracle."

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Clara has already completed 12 of her 24 miles, which is being tracked using her mum's Apple watch, with walks around her local area.

Mum Sophie says the challenge has been vital in helping the toddler stay entertained during lockdown, which saw the family begin shielding due to Clara's chronic lung disease.

"As soon as they said we could go for a walk we thought we might as well use it to raise some money for the charity," Sophie said.

"It gets her out the house because she can get quite frustrated, especially now she's so active and had just got into a routine with nursery.

"She's loving it, though, she's doing so well."

Donate to Clara's fundraiser here.