Plastic - In Our Seas and In Our Bodies: January 2017

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Plastic - In Our Seas and In Our Bodies

I am so excited. On August 7th I'll be leaving Plymouth on the Sea Dragon as part of an all female crew sailing around the British Isles sampling the seas for PLASTIC and linking visible marine toxicity to the invisible toxic levels in our own bodies - the seen and the unseen.

If you don't know me, my name is Deborah Maw. I'll be 60 in March 2017. This blog will be about this fantastic opportunity to celebrate my 60th year.

As far as I can make out this is the first expedition sampling the whole of mainland Britain's waters. I feel so privilaged to be able to take part and I know that many of my friends and family will be eager to hear all about it; the adventure, the findings, the fundraising.

Expedition name - Exxpedition 2017 (double xx for female chromosomes!!) organised by Pangaea
Vessel - 70' Sea Dragon, previously one of the round world Clipper Race boats (which is one of those amazing coincidences as I enquired about being a member of the Clipper Crew a few years ago)
Route - Plymouth to Plymouth via Cardiff, Belfast, Arran, Stornaway, Edinburgh and London (another bit of serendipity as I have had a goal of traveling the whole British coastline in my early 60's)
Duration - one month
Purpose - Sampling coastal waters for micro-plastic and finding out our own 'body burden' i.e. toxic levels in our blood of PCB's, dioxins, pesticides, flame retardants etc.
Education - We will be trained to be the crew, the researchers, the artists, the explorers, the campaigners, and in turn give workshops and presentations in the capital cities of each country.

This expedition brings together all of my life experiences:-

I'm the daughter of a sailor but I've never learned to sail, and it has been a goal for many years to be part of a crew on a long-distance sail. I'd already booked - as my birthday present to myself - to do the RYA Competent Crew 5 day sailing course in May. I can't believe it's going to come into good use so soon.
My first passions as a child were wildflowers, exploring, sewing and dance. All still very important to me.
I started my adult life as a biochemist, getting a PhD. Although I didn't continue with this career I have always valued my background as a research scientist.
I then went on to get a teaching qualification in Biology, again I didn't become a biology teacher, however, I have used my teaching qualification in many other ways.
At the age of 25 I went traveling, initially for a year but turned into 4 years; through the USA, Canada, New Zealand, a year in Australia discovering that I'm an environmentalist (and a bit of a hippy), a year in Indonesia learning batik and making clothes, 6 months working with a homeless organization on an organic farm in Scotland, through France and Italy with two other women and two children in a van to spend a year busking in Greece. During this time I took part in several women's peace camps including Greenham and Pine Gap and I spent 3 months in the Tasmanian bush as part of the Franklin Dam protest camp. I took up long distance walking/wild camping and began studying complementary therapies, particularly nutrition and psychology.
I came back to the UK to study a complementary therapy, have children and live in community. I have 3 children, qualified as a kinesiologist and astrological counsellor, and lived in a rural community for many years in North Wales. We spent the summers at educational

camps where I'd run kinesiology and astrology workshops (I still do art workshops and astrology at camps and festivals).
We moved to Macclesfield for the children to go to school; I did some therapy work, supply teaching, a lot of private Maths tutoring AND began walking/wild camping the long distance coastal footpaths of Britain.
For my 50th birthday, I went back to college for four years and got a Foundation Degree in Art. (Going to art college had been a dream since I was 16 - I had been persuaded to do science.) I couldn't afford new art materials so I decided to work with waste materials and soon specialised in waste plastic, particularly non-recyclable plastic and plastic I found washed up on Britain's beaches. I created sculptures, installations, fabrics, fashion items, framed pieces and photographs.

'Sub-Ocean' 2010
Sea plastic trapped within screen printed double glazing unit

Combining my teaching qualification and my newly acquired art skills I was very fortunate to get many years work in the youth service, teaching environmental awareness through the creative use of waste materials. (Unfortunately local authority cuts pulled all the funding out of the youth service in the North West three years ago).
After I'd finished college Mum was ill and needed almost daily visiting so I moved to Yorkshire and moved out of living in houses, first into my sister's garden, then into a caravan, followed by a canal boat for 2 years. I have been living in a small camper van for the past 2 and half years, discovering that I am definitely a nomad at heart.
With the youth work gone, I needed some other flexible work and took up respite live in care, and teaching photography to young people on the government funded NCS programme, the Challenge. These have been wonderful for getting me around the country, in my van, visiting new areas, particularly coasts and ancient sites.
Since returning from traveling in my 20's I really hadn't done much traveling out of the UK. This changed with my eldest son moving to the USA; I had decided years before that I no longer wanted to fly (for environmental reasons) so I went to his graduation by cargo ship from Harwich to New York - an incredible experience, although it made me realise that wind power is the environmentally friendly way to go and I needed to learn to crew!!
Two more trips, to see my son get married and meet my grand daughter, cargo ships were out of my budget, however, I made the most of the flights and spent weeks traveling/walking/wild camping the islands of British Columbia and the boundary waters of Northern Michigan and Minnesota.
Which brings me up to date and my 2017 New Year's resolution to make my 60th year VERY special. When a link to Exxpedition 2017 came up in my Facebook feed last week I could hardly believe how an adventure could so exactly fit Me; the science, the sailing, the waste plastic, the art, the teaching, the health aspects. I applied immediately and was accepted for the whole trip - YES. SO EXCITED.
I can see that not only does this expedition encompass all my skills, interests, dreams and ambitions, it will open doors to new work - combining art and science to raise awareness of personal and environmental health - and more adventures.

Images of Found Plastic on British Coastline