A Belfast teenager will set sail on the adventure of a lifetime to Antarctica as part of a bid to get more young people involved in exploring.
Aoibh Bradley, 16, from West Belfast is one of the 10 teenagers selected from over 700 applicants for the expedition.
Her mum Michelle told Belfast Live it is a chance for Aoibh to have the experience of a lifetime given that she works so selflessly in helping to look after her two brothers, who have additional needs.
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She was selected to join the #WeTwoExpedition with Hurtigruten Expeditions after her mum saw an appeal by the founders, explorers Dwayne Fields and Phoebe Smith.
"I just immediately thought of Aoibh - she would be classed as a young carer, she's just the best wee girl in the world," she said.
"She's so loving, caring and giving and I just thought what an opportunity she could have.
"Dwayne and Phoebe are explorers and environmentalists and they've done this expedition themselves.
"They're two people who looked around at their field and thought they were under-represented there, with Phoebe being a woman from a very deprived area in Wales and Dwayne because of his ethnicity.
"They were sort of inspired to inspire other people and they've fund-raised for all of this."
Michelle said Aoibh had been hard at work over the summer in preparation for the trip of a lifetime and that the #WeTwo Foundation's message was one that reosnated.
"Their ethos is 'planting seeds, not flags', so they want to give children who wouldn't have this opportunity normally the chance to go," she said.
"The idea is then they go back into their local community and spread the word that this is possible, that there are no boundaries and it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, you can have these opportunities.
"Each participant had to pay it forward and we look at the Black Mountain every day so we worked with the Belfast Hills Partnership.
"Once Aoibh finished her GCSEs, we rolled up our sleeves and the BHP were absolutely fantastic.
"It could have been anything from litter-picking, to removing invasive species, to replanting native species to removing hogweed off farmers' fields."
Aoibh is part of the eco-club at Coláiste Feirste and worked with other pupils to ban the use of plastic dishes and cutlery in the school canteen.
They collected hundreds of signatures and presented them to their school principal and a couple of weeks later, the ban was introduced.
Her mum says that is entirely in keeping with Aoibh's character.
"She's always been an eco-warrior, she was always in the eco-club and everything," she said.
"When they were doing the walkouts with Greta Thunberg, she did all those walkouts and she would have went to city centre and protested.
"She'll use shampoo bars, we'll use bamboo toothbrushes, we have meat-free days, she'll avoid as much as possible single-use plastics.
"And she would encourage her friends and other people around her to do so too."
The entire expedition is carbon neutral – the young adults planted over 100 native trees to offset carbon produced through flying to the start point at Scouts HQ, Gilwell Park.
All the kit they will wear, made especially by Craghoppers, is made from recycled plastic bottles and dyed using sustainable chemical-free practices.
They are currently in Buenos Aires, and will leave to board the ship on November 10, spending 10 days aboard.
They will travel to Antarctica with Hurtigruten Expeditions on their hybrid ship MS Fridtjof Nansen – named the world’s most sustainable expedition vessel (by Scope ESG).
Once onboard be taking part in real-time climate science, collecting samples and undertaking wildlife surveys as well as trying snowshoeing, kayaking, camping on ice and swimming in the Southern Ocean.
And for Michelle, the trip was an opportunity for Aoibh to explore Antarctica, but also explore herself, which she maybe doesn't always get the time to do at home.
"I think the confidence it's going to give her will be great, because sometimes she's sort of in the shadows," Michelle said.
"Her brothers demand so much of my attention, so much focus sometimes can be on them, they have autism and ADHD and her younger brother has motor issues too.
"There's times where we're out and we have to come home because he's in pain or they can't cope with the noise, so she misses out on so much.
"I just wanted her to have an experience just for her, something special just totally for her."
Aoibh has also taken her 'desert-island items' with her in a bid for an unusual first.
"The first question she had was 'can I bring my hurl?'.
"She said 'I want to be the first camog - do you think there's veer been a camog in Antarctica?'
"So she's away out there with her hurl and her sliotar!".
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