"If she can do at 92 then what can you do?"

My name is Katey Sleeman (61 years old) and my story about Climate Change comes from growing up with my Mum Jennifer Sleeman (92 years old) who has been a Climate Change Activist for at least 50 years.

In my twenties (1980s) my Mum would put a meal in front of her family (6 kids) with the announcement that the meal came from only a mile from our home. I can remember being a factitious child saying "what about the salt?" but I did understand and remember what the message was that she wanted us to hear. From her childhood as a daughter of a fruit farmer in South Africa to being a dairy farmer in North Cork my Mother's happy place has always been with her hands in the earth. No gloves for her!

Her passion and dedication for Fairtrade in Ireland came from her youngest daughter Patricia's experience of working on a Fairtrade farm in Nicaragua in 2001. Patricia saw at first-hand the devastating effect that Climate Change had had on the El Nino, creating floods with livelihoods and lives lost forever. On hearing this my Mum asked "How can we help?" Hence the Fairtrade campaign started in Clonakilty by my Mum with an amazing committee of local people both from religious and political backgrounds. Clonakilty is very proud to have become the first Fairtrade Town in Ireland in 2003. After that and for many years my Mum used her free travel, as she was definitely a Pensioner at this stage, to travel all over Ireland encouraging towns, villages and cities around Ireland to achieve the Fairtrade symbol as she saw that this was one way she could do something positive in supporting those and many other Farmers all over the Developing World. And it is so no coincidence that it is these countries that are being the worst affected by Climate Change!

More locally, she successfully campaigned to stop an 18-hole golf course from being built on an important piece of marshland outside Clonakilty. She gained huge support from people in Clonakilty and the Irish Society Protection for Bird which really stopped the development. It is now wonderfully diverse habitat for many many migratory and indigenous birds and all the other flora and fauna for future generations.

So, Climate Change has been part of my family life for decades. On speaking to