Message in bottle found on Welsh beach used as rallying call to protect the environment

Arklow (Irish: An tInbhear Mór) is on the east coast of Ireland. Nine-year-old Olivia Mythen from Arklow, placed a message with a small packet of sweets in a bottle and sent it on its way across the Irish Sea. Sara McAleese found the bottle on Wallog beach, near Aberystwyth in west Wales and was surpised to find the message inside. She was able to read enough of it to see it was from an Olivia and that she was nine. Sara, a midwife in Powys, posted a photograph on a social media page dedicated to items lost at sea. Within minutes she was contacted by a man who said a member of his family, nine-year-old Olivia had sent the message. She has now returned the letter along with some Aberystwyth memorabilia to Olivia.

The story was reported by BBC Wales and the Irish Wicklow News. However, Sara was also keen to use her find to encourage people to take another message in addition to the one found in the bottle. Sara makes a point of collecting discarded litter as she visits beaches in order to try and keep beaches clean. She said that if everyone picked up one item of rubbish from beaches it would make a difference. Sara pointed out that: "I think anyone who uses our beaches at all is aware that there's a massive amount of rubbish which is predominantly plastic.

"Anywhere you go, you can just stop and pick up rubbish and recycle. Sometimes it really is rubbish, but it does give back and sometimes you can find great things." She will be taking part in a nationwide two-minute beach clean on Sunday, where participants clean their local beach for two minutes and then post a photograph of the results on social media. June 11th is National #2minutebeachclean Day. As Sara says: "If everyone who went to the beach picked up one thing, we'd have much less of a problem,"