Lily shared “I really love the ocean and have turned vegetarian for the sea animals almost two years ago. I am a competitive swimmer and I train with two local Portuguese coaches who are absolutely amazing and I raised GBP 1680 by swimming 5k for the GOSH children’s hospital last year.”

She added: “For my Independent Inquiry Project this term I chose to speak about the octopus - my favourite animal. While researching the octopus I came across plans to open the world's first octopus farm. This was a huge shock to me and I knew I wanted to do something to stop these plans.”

With the support of the Madrid-based Ocean Born Foundation, Lily has started a fundraising event for the Compassion in World Farming End It campaign. Lily told The Portugal News “I am looking for passionate kids & teenagers who want to participate in my Octo-Defender Challenge! You can swim, run, bike, read, write, or bring any other talent or passion to our team, click the green "Join Team" button on the below link to create your own personal page that will be automatically linked to the Ocean Born Octo-Defenders Team.”

Most wonderfully, Lily will be swimming 2km in open water on the weekend of May 25th from GIGIs to IZZY'S and added that for her open-water training, her coach is João Jacinto from Multisport Evolution. “For my pool and competition training, I am part of the new CAMPUS swim team and train at the Campus with Telma Torres.”

If you would like to support Lily please donate at:

https://www.justgiving.com/team/octopusdefenders?utm_medium=proxy_team&utm_content=team%2Foctopusdefenders&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

Check out the Ocean Born Foundation's Instagram (@OceanBornFoundation) and website below for more information and follow Lily’s Instagram (@swimforimpact) for updates on her training and swim.

www.oceanbornfoundation.org/stop-octopus-farming/