Wanderlust Women group make Lake District more accessible to Muslim women

• Watch Ryan Dollard's video report.

A woman who fell in love with the Lake District is making the outdoors more accessible for women from diverse backgrounds.

Amira Patel left her life in Bolton and moved to Penrith to become an outdoor leader in the National Park.

Her aim was to encourage more muslim women to explore the countryside, and so in 2020 Wanderlust Women was born.

Ms Patel said: "When you typically look at the outdoors you don't see people who look like us.

"I really wanted to create a space to give them the confidence to get outdoors and make sure they feel comfortable in a group where people look like them. I just wanted to normalise muslim women in the outdoors and sports."

Historically the Lake District has a poor record for reaching out to people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The movement Ms Patel founded is making great strides reverse that trend, with the Wanderlust group having gained thousands of followers across the world.

She said: "When I started it was just to take people out for walks, but it's become a whole movement now."

Ms Patel is not only making areas of the Lake District more accessible to women of BAME and muslim backgrounds, she has opened doors for many women internationally.

The group have just returned from climbing Mount Toubkal in Morocco, the highest mountain in North Africa.

Ms Patel now hopes to set up her own outdoors academy for muslim women. Her dream is to take the group up Mount Kilimanjaro and even Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

She told ITV Border: "We're more than just a hiking group we're a sisterhood. It's just really nice to see how people have grown since they started."

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