Brierfield woman follows footsteps of Charles Darwin to help fight climate change and support endangered green turtles

Alison Ashworth, a former St Christopher's Sixth Form pupil, boarded the historic Oosterschelde ship on its Tenerife to Cape Verde leg, as it stops at key locations where Charles Darwin stepped ashore during the voyage of HMS Beagle two centuries ago.

Alison, who is studying for an Environmental Science degree at the University of Lancaster, has been working with Biosfera’s turtle experts as part of the Don Hanson Charitable Foundation and Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots programme. The investigation explores the population of green turtles at San Pedro beach in Andalusia, Spain, and the effect of increasing tourism on their health and wellbeing.

“During my time at St Christopher’s School and Sixth Form, I was the school Eco Captain. In this role, I helped in making the school and local community more eco-friendly.

"One way I did this was through the ‘teach the teachers’ campaign, which aims to put the risks of climate change into the school curriculum. For this, I spoke in front of the teaching staff and was interviewed by the local radio and newspaper.

“I also took part in the ‘Solar For Schools’ project, which allowed the school to see how many solar panels could be placed on the high school and sixth form, how much it would cost and whether this would be sustainable. Recently, the school has managed to install these solar panels through the financial support of Solar For Schools.

“Even though I left sixth form last year, I was recently invited back for a sustainability learning conference. I helped set up the event, hand out awards and greet people. Through this, and also meeting and listening to the speakers and the performances, it widened my knowledge on ways to tackle some of the

environmental challenges we face today.

“By partaking in these projects, it puts my learning into practice on ways to spread awareness and tackle environmental issues.”

Wendy Litherland, Eco Lead and Associate Assistant Headteacher at St Christopher’s, added: “This is an amazing opportunity for such a high calibre student.

"We are really looking forward to welcoming her back into school and sixth form to share her experiences with our current pupils and students later this academic year.”