Natasha Bellamy

Natasha is 16 years old and lives in the Copnor area. She attends Portsmouth College where she is in her first year. She hopes to carry on through college and university and become a paramedic.

One of her teachers had met
with Alan and spoke about the project in a school Assembly
and Natasha was keen from the start. She said, "I've loved learning the key aspects of sailing but I have also learned how difficult it can be and how much commitment it takes to work in a team. Through working with the project I've gained so much in confidence - I'm now much happier meeting people in a strange environment than I ever used to be. And, even better, everyone I've met so far while travelling has been really nice!".

For fundraising she has done bag packing, organised a non-school-uniform day and pub nights, helped with street collecting and done lots of smaller things to help make up the pennies. Despite the hard work, she has enjoyed every moment of it.

Before getting involved with The Raymarine Lively Lady Project she had not done any sailing before but has now definitely got the bug. "I love it so much, it is so exhilarating to be on the open water. The best thing about learning to sail is learning to have control of the boat", she said. And, on her next leg, she's looking forward to seeing Singapore and Thailand but is really hoping she gets to see a whale!

Involvement with the project has affected her in many ways - not least that she feels she wants to have her own boat and would like to start her own project like this when she's older. << back