By Sarah Robinson

Published at 11:10, Thursday, 09 August 2012

AN 18-hour sponsored badminton challenge has helped a Beckermet woman to pay for the trip-of-a-lifetime abroad.

fundraising: Lucy Carver is presented with £250 from Edwin Dinsdale of the GMB and Geoff Clifford, shop steward of GMB

Lucy Carver, 24, raised over £1,000 in one day by taking to badminton courts with friends and competitors in an action-packed challenge.

It was one of a series of fundraisers helping to pay for a six-month volunteering post for Lucy to work in Mauritius as a pink pigeon field biologist.

Fundraising events over the past three months have included tombolas, raffles and quizzes. A total of £2,530.35 has been collected so far, with the latest event raising £1,026.

Lucy said: “I wanted to do a sponsored challenge and do something I could do.”

Members from Seascale and Maryport badminton clubs took part in the challenge at Harrington Scout Club, along with some of Lucy’s friends from Preston and Loughborough University. Now Lucy is looking forward to travelling to Mauritius on August 30, when she starts her post with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation.

She will be collecting data, statistics and writing reports on a variety of rare birds including pink pigeons, Mauritius keshen echo parakeet, Mauritian foddy and olive white eye.

As the post is voluntary, Lucy has had to raise all of the funds herself, including applying for a £500 grant from Cumbria Community Foundation to pay for medical fees.

A number of events were also held at the Whitemare pub in Beckermet, where she used to work.

She said: “I’ve been thinking about going on a trip like this for a while. It took me a long time to decide where I wanted to go!”

Her decision to go abroad follows the completion of a geography degree and a masters qualification in environmental monitoring for management. Recently she has worked with the Environment Agency and the Eden Fisheries Trust.

Lucy is well-known for creating handmade gifts, from painted champagne flutes to painted piggy banks, trinket boxes and jewellery boxes. The items in the Juicy collection have been on sale in Whitehaven’s Strange Fruits, the Lowes Court art gallery and the Toy barn at Millstones in Bootle.

Lucy would like to thank everyone involved in helping her fundraise, including: Malcolm Grayson from Solway, the Harrington Scout group and the two badminton clubs. She also thanks the GMB union and Prospect Union for their sponsorship of £250 each.

She would also like to thank Beckermet Village Association, John Powe, Phil Ward and the Beckermet Women’s Institute and her mother.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk