SHE has set herself the ultimate challenge – giving up sweets and chocolate for a whole month.

Six-year-old Bethan Richards has vowed to achieve what most children would find impossible – and is already halfway towards achieving her goal.

The big-hearted schoolgirl is resisting temptation in a bid to help a Hythe toddler who cannot walk and needs a £50,000 operation.

As reported in the Daily Echo, two-year-old James Mills has cerebral palsy and needs a procedure known as selective dorsal rhizotomy, which involves cutting faulty nerves to improve the patient’s mobility.

But the life-changing surgery is not normally available on the NHS and his family will have to raise the money themselves.

Bethan, who also lives in Hythe, heard about James’s plight and decided to help.

Her mother Jo, 35, said: “She wanted to do some charity work and started by collecting stamps for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

“After reading about James she sold some of her own toys and has now given up sweets and chocolates for the whole of October in return for donations.”

Bethan’s sacrifice is all the more impressive because her intolerance to wheat means she is unable to replace sweets with cakes and biscuits.

Displaying maturity way beyond her years she has told her mum: “If it’s not a challenge, it’s not worth doing.”

Jo said: “Bethan wants to do things for James as long as she can and keeps coming up with new ideas, including craft evenings and a coffee morning.

“We’re immensely proud of her.

She’s so selfless – it’s such a lovely part of her.”

Bethan, a Year 2 pupil at Hythe Primary School, met James for the first time when she and Jo went round to his home.

Mum Vicki, 28, said: “What Bethan is doing for James is amazing. People three times her age can learn a lot from her.”

Vicki revealed that she and her supporters have so far raised £13,120 towards the cost of the operation.

She added: “James really wants to walk now and is getting very frustrated because he can’t. It’s so difficult seeing him like that.”