Merseyside is home to so many fantastic women, who are breaking gender stereotypes and achieving remarkable things.
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00:00International Women's Day is a chance to inspire all women to believe in themselves and their
00:08own ability. One inspirational woman I'm meeting today is proof that it's never too late to
00:12make a change.
00:13It was after my year in Australia that I kind of made the decision at the end before I came
00:17home that I'm going to come home and the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to apply
00:21for a zoology undergraduate degree. I studied psychology with clinical and health psychology
00:26I knew by that point that it wasn't what I wanted to do so I left and I became a preschool
00:31teacher and from that I actually got to go and spend a year abroad in Australia being
00:35a private nanny. I got to go see David Attenborough do a talk at Sydney Theatre and that was really
00:43the turning point. I think my face ached for about three days after that from just sitting
00:47there grinning the whole time.
00:49As well as Sir David Attenborough, Sophie says there's a few women who've inspired her
00:55in her life.
00:56There's a lady called Rosalind Franklin who was a scientist back in the 1950s working
01:00at King's College London. She worked in x-ray crystallography and she really should get
01:05more credit for helping discover the double helix structure DNA. Daphne Sheldrick, she
01:09worked in Kenya and she set up the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and then lastly, it's a bit
01:17cheesy but it's my mum. She is probably one of the loveliest people I know and I know
01:21we're all biased when we say our mums are lovely but I'm especially proud of her at
01:26the moment because this month she will retire from 45 years working as an NHS physio.
01:31After graduating with a first class honours degree in zoology, she obtained a Masters
01:35of Science in wild animal biology going on to work as a cryopreservation biologist and
01:41charity coordinator before coming to Knowsley.
01:45Knowsley Safari is home to over 700 animals from lions and tigers to rhinos, meerkats
01:50and giraffes. First opened in 1971, the safari drive now covers around 550 acres.
01:57I get to do a lot here and I think the most fulfilling part is just how many different
02:03conservation projects and kind of topics I get to contribute to on a daily basis.
02:09Working with local and international conservation partners who help protect species all over
02:14the world. Last September Sophie travelled to South Africa to gain more knowledge about
02:19vultures.
02:20All the sort of exotic international stuff is really exciting but I also love what we
02:24do in our own backyard here, not just at the safari but around Merseyside.
02:29Closer to home, Sophie has been working with Green Sefton and Hightown Beach Clean to help
02:34species local to the Sefton coast including Natterjack toads and the sand lizard.
02:39Sophie's also been working with local schools on projects to create wildlife gardens on
02:43their grounds aimed at promoting biodiversity of local species and helping to factor this
02:48into their lessons and curriculum.
02:51It feels like a really nice full circle moment. It feels really nice sort of helping connect
02:56the next generation to nature.