My Story

Thank you so much for visiting my page and for your donation!

I'm Ella and I am currently taking a year out after finishing my A-levels last year. I decided to take a gap year to experience life without school - filling my time working with the Royal Free Hospital on a current research study, work placements at two scientific institutes, working in a cafe, going travelling and volunteering.

I found SEED Madagascar's conservation programme after looking at lots of different volunteer paths working to help restore our natural environment, as well as helping to teach those living in these endangered environments about the importance of conservation. Although I am certain to learn a lot of hard truths, I can't wait to learn about the significance of conserving Madagascar's flora and fauna and want to bring this back with me to help spread the word. I also look forward to taking this knowledge with me when I go on to study Biology and Psychology in September 2019.

I will be going out to Madagascar on the 31 March 2019 and taking part in a 6 week Conservation programme run by SEED Madagascar. As part of this scheme, I need to raise an agreed donation of £1,595. This money goes directly to support SEED Madagascar’s work, with only a tiny proportion covering the volunteers’ food, training and travel whilst in Madagascar.

'Swim to Madagascar' 06/03/2019

The total distance from the UK to Madagascar is 5,687 miles. To help with my fundraising, I have decided to 'swim to Madagascar' and am going to swim 5,687 metres - you can sponsor me here!

In my local swimming pool this is 186.5 lengths (the lengths are 30.5m), I will post an update on how long it took me here: 2 hours 24 minutes over three days (Monday 04 - Wednesday 06 of March). To put it in perspective, swimming this far would only get me 1/8th of the way from Madagascar to the coast of East Africa (if I didn't get eaten by sharks).