By Rachael Grealish

Whitehaven Sea Cadets have launched a campaign to encourage hundreds nationwide to save the bees.

The campaign, named #SaveTheTSBees, has had the cadets send over 8,000 “Beebomb” wildflower seed balls to over 400 youth groups including every sea cadet unit in Great Britain and many local youth groups.

One of the cadets involved is Ordinary Cadet Connor Sweeney, who said: “Bees play such an important role as pollinators and yet there are less and less of them every year.

“Given our unit name, we decided to take a stand and help bring them back. Helping the environment has been at the heart of the project – we have used biodegradable envelopes, packing and labels and even our flyers were printed on seeded paper which will create even more flowers for the bees to thrive.”

The cadets are able to send out so many seed bombs thanks to funding from the Cumbria Community Foundation and Sellafield Ltd Transforming West Cumbria #CanDo programme and its aim is to create over 10,500 square feet of wildflower spaces where bees and pollinators can thrive.

Whitehaven Town Councillor Edwin Dinsdale visited the unit while the cadets were preparing the seed ball packs and were presented with his very own.

Cllr Dinsdale said: “I would like to thank Whitehaven Sea Cadets for presenting me with the Beebomb pack. This is a great environmental initiative and I would strongly encourage everyone in Whitehaven and countrywide to support this campaign fully.”