

Being diagnosed with cancer at just 25 changed the course of Lizzie Carr’s life, ditching her corporate career to become an adventurer and taking on challenge after challenge on her paddleboard to battle plastic pollution worldwide. She’s the first person in history to solo paddle board the length of England, the first woman to solo paddle board the English channel and in 2018 paddle boarded the whole of the Hudson River from Albany to New York City. Her app Plastic Patrol already has over 50,000 entries from people logging plastic pollution all over the world. An inspirational story of what we can do if we put our minds to it.
On this episode we cover:
Paddle boarding 170 miles down the Hudson River to arrive in New York City
Paddling through currents, tides and crazy storms
Being ‘mostly scared’
How a challenge is not a holiday!
The dense woodland of the Hudson River
Finally seeing New York City in sight
Organising plastic patrols and foreshore cleans on the way
Using a detachable ‘smart fin’ on her board
Developing the Plastic Patrol app
Bottles, wrappers and bags
The UK being quite progressive with plastic legislation
Lucy Siegle’s Turning the Tide on Plastic
What the current situation is with plastic pollution
Increased awareness, education and accountability
The whale on the beach in Indonesia
The European study that showed we all have micro plastic inside us
Returning to craftsmanship
How being diagnosed with cancer age 25 changed the course of her life
Turning to paddleboarding and connecting plastic with the environment
Seeing birds nests made almost entirely of plastics
Paddling the length of England via canals
‘Portaging’ (Lisa’s new word of the week!)
The birth of #plasticpatrol
The global reach of 50,000 uploads around the world – Europe, Russia, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Africa…
Crossing the English Channel on a paddleboard
The terrifying experience of going through the shipping channels
French ruling that human powered crafts cannot cross their side of the shipping lane
Being called out by the authorities across the French border
The Truman Show!
The most stand out moment – coming out of Rye Harbour surrounded by
How getting sea sick almost scuppered her plans
Arriving in France in a dramatic storm
The beauty of the Isles of Scilly akin to the Caribbean
The joy of autumnal paddleboarding at magic hour
Travelling through Africa, Australia and New Zealand and the Trans Siberian Railway
The idea of sharing the reality of a destination
How social media can show a reality that doesn’t always exist
Using travel to talk about humanitarian and ecological issues
Using travel to collect meaningful information
How in retrospect she could see some of the signs of cancer
Hiking rice fields in Vietnam
How Africa can steal your heart
Seeing ‘the big 5’
How Africa spared an interest in conservation
How travel can open the eyes to so much
Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa
England to Kenya, overland to Cape Town
New Zealand to Australia (not enjoying it!) then Singapore and Malaysia overland to Beijing.
The joys of overland travel by train and more
The trans Siberian railway across Siberia and to Russia
Plastic Patrol and plans for the future
The UK roadshow where people volunteer and pay ‘nature tax’
What we can do to help – logging data in the app, do a beach clean, reuse plastic, consume less
Don’t demonise plastic but use other single use products
How China is now refusing our plastic
‘The song of the paddle’
The memorable train journey across India
The song that reminds her of all her amazing adventures