A FORMER Dorcan pupil is stepping out of her comfort zone of weightlifting and netball to take on the high-energy world of Zumba as part of a new campaign to get more girls involved in sport.

Sport England’s successful ‘This Girl Can’ campaign recently relaunched on television with a vibrant celebration of active women.

This has proved to be an exciting time for Swindon student Freya Killick, 17, who has been accepted as an ambassador for the programme, making her one of only 70 girls selected from across the country for the sporting role.

Freya, formerly of Dorcan School, was nominated by Dede Foley, the health and fitness development officer at Cirencester College, where she is studying.

Freya then had to submit a formal application, including information about her personal experience, what she could bring to the campaign and how she would promote fitness for women of all ages.

This Girl Can is a celebration of active women who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.

The programme, funded by The National Lottery and developed by Sport England, has been designed to help women overcome the fear of judgement that is stopping too many women and girls from joining in.

Following her selection for the role, Freya travelled to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London to meet the other chosen ambassadors for this year’s campaign.

During her day in London, there were training sessions on promoting their own campaigns, talks on leadership and speeches from those who had been ambassadors in the previous campaign, culminating in an inspirational speech from Kate Dale, who launched the whole campaign.

Freya’s role as an ambassador is to encourage women between the ages of 14 and 60 to become more active.

She said: “I will be starting my ambassadorial role with a female-only Zumba course at the college.

"The six-week taster programme will be open to female staff and students who would like to try out Zumba as a fitness class.”

Freya, who is currently studying sport development coaching and fitness at Cirencester College, is a keen weightlifter and netball player, so Zumba is going to be something totally new for her too.

For more information on the This Girl Can campaign visit the website www.thisgirlcan.co.uk