My name is Lizzie Pennefather and I am 16 years old. I have always loved nature and I am particularly passionate about oceans and marine life. I believe that we need to do more to protect and restore our seas and coastlines, and I've been inspired to do something to help this important cause by the incredible girls and women who I have met through the pageant community. 

Please read on to find out about my 135 mile coastal walk and why I am raising money for Cumbria Wildlife Trust's 'Living Seas North West'....

My Cumbrian Coastal Walk    

This summer (2022) I am walking the Cumbrian Coastal Way from Duddon Bridge (near Broughton-in-Furness) to the Esk Bridge (near Gretna, Scotland). This 135 mile walk will take me about 13 days. My first day's walk will be on Good Friday, and once I have finished my GCSEs I will be completing the walk over my summer holiday. During this time I will also be taking part in voluntary work with Living Seas North West.

Why the Cumbrian Coast is important to me     

Although I spent much of my childhood living in Africa and India, every summer I spent time in the Lake District due to my family's connections with the area. We would always spend time at the coast and I have many happy memories of rock pooling, making sandcastles, swimming in the sea, birdwatching and playing in the sand dunes. Take a look in the gallery to see a few of my favourite pictures!

Our oceans are amazing.... but our oceans are in danger!  

Our oceans cover over 70% of the earth's surface area, provide half of our oxygen, help regulate our climate by absorbing heat, and absorb vast quantities of carbon dioxide. They are incredibly biodiverse, supporting more than half of all the life on earth, and there are likely to be thousands more creatures living in our oceans that we have not yet discovered! They also provide us with food, millions of jobs and are important for recreation and leisure activities.

Sadly, our oceans have huge levels of pollution, including plastic pollution, which affects all types of ocean wildlife and makes its way up the food chain to affect us. They are also being over-fished, their temperatures are rising, jeopardising sea life, and coastal development is adversely affecting wildlife habitats.

The importance of the Cumbrian Coast & the Irish Sea

The Irish Sea and its coastline has 10 Marine Conservation Zones. These include a wide range of important habitats including: intertidal rock pools, boulder and cobble reefs or 'scars', Irish Sea mounds, honeycomb worm reefs, sandy seafloor, mixed and coarse sediment, mudflats, saltmarsh and shallow, wide estuaries. These support a vast array of life including: 

• Sea squirts, tube worms, sponges, sea pens, urchins, sea firs, soft coral, anemones, starfish and brittle stars
• Barnacles, cockles, mussels, ocean quahogs
• Crabs, lobsters, shrimps, Dublin Bay prawns
• A wide variety of fish including smelt, bass, pollack, rays and flatfish
• Sea birds like puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, eider ducks, gulls, terns and wading birds like oystercatchers and curlew
• Harbour porpoises, grey seals and several species of shark
• Seasonal visitors including common and bottlenose dolphins, basking sharks, and even fin whales and minke whales!

What is Living Seas North West?

Cumbria Wildlife trust in collaboration with Cheshire and Lancashire Wildlife Trusts have formed Living Seas North West. Living Seas North West run a range of projects across the Irish Sea to protect marine wildlife and habitats and inspire local communities to care for their coasts and seas. Their work includes campaigning for the designation and management of a network of Marine Protected Areas; working with the fishing community to promote sustainable fishing methods allowing seabed habitats to recover; and even working with the NHS to deliver nature and wellbeing sessions to combat issues such as loneliness and social isolation.

For more information visit: https://www.livingseasnw.org.uk

If you would like to support the wonderful work of Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Living Seas North West, please sponsor my walk. I will be extremely grateful for anything that you can give!

You can follow my progress on Facebook (Elizabeth Pennefather) and on Instagram (lizzie_pageants), and I'll also be posting updates on JustGiving.

Huge thanks for your support!

Lizzie xx

P.S. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.