With Christmas fast approaching many of us will be starting to think about how we will be getting home for the big day.

But for one East Sheen explorer the long journey home is already behind him – he has made it home from 15 months at sea to see his family in time for the festive season.

This year Christmas will be extra special for 28-year-old Tim Bromfield as it marks the end of an adventure across the Atlantic, covering more than 35,000km, raising awareness of the effects and causes of climate change.

Tim, a Cambridge graduate who grew up in Hartford Avenue, is one of a trio of intrepid explorers who took on the challenge of helping to teach children across the Atlantic coast to understand how action by small communities can have global consequences on climate change.

He said: “Children are the next generation so will inherit the earth.

“They stand to be affected the most and it is very important they grow up understanding the forces and effects they are having so they can build this knowledge into decisions for the future.

“Our aims were to first create a network between schools around the Atlantic to raise awareness of the effects of climate change and then to put children in touch with each other so they could share their experiences and ideas.”

Tim and former university friends Lynn Morris, 30, and Will Lorimer, 29, set off on their eco-mission more than a year ago after setting up charity organisation Atlantic Rising.

They were awarded a £10,000 grant from the Royal Geographical Society as part of the Go Beyond bursary, which is sponsored by Land Rover. The group was even supplied with a specially-adapted vehicle by the car manufacturer to help them make their idea a reality.

The mission aims to show how working together could be key to finding a solution to the climate change conundrum.

Tim said: “I studied geography at university and the others studied anthropology and we were always interested in climate change. Back at the time [we set up Atlantic Rising] a number of new forecasts were coming out of what sea level rises will be in a million years time.

“Today, climate change is something that is talked through all around the world and even the man on the street in Senegal knows what it is.

“[But the] message has a bigger impact [for children when it comes] from their peers rather than adults so for example we put American schools in touch with Ghanaian schools with Skype (internet phone software).

“The effect of Ghanaian kids questioning children in America about their carbon footprint and holding them to account for their carbon emissions that was a moment of great awakening and shattered quite a few perceptions of what Africans are like and the children of a young age there.”

As part of the group’s global campaign to tackle climate change, Tim, Lynn and Will headed off on a route across the Atlantic, travelling by container ship and car, taking in the west coast of Europe, west Africa, the Americas and Canada.

They headed to schools along the ocean’s 1.5m contour line, which is predicted to be the new coastline of the Atlantic in 100 years, seeing how the coastline looks now and talking to the kids about what the future may hold for their individual corners of the world.

The team sought to explore what will be lost around the Atlantic if sea levels rise by one metre as is predicted will happen by 2100.

Taking their belief that education is the most important weapon society has in combating climate change, they targeted children and schools as the main groups that needed to be connected to find solutions to the world’s environmental problems.

Working with low-lying communities around the ocean rim, the Atlantic Rising team created a network between more than 15,000 pupils helping to foster friendships, share their experiences and collaborate on climate change projects.

By raising awareness about the difficulties faced by Atlantic communities they hope to help the next generation to recognise their responsibility to each other to build a sustainable future.

Tim said: “[It’s brilliant to see] people starting to do things about climate change as well as inspiring to see grassroots projects working, such as communities replanting mangroves on the coast line or using more fuel efficient stoves, and there are political movements as well and people are putting pressure on their MPs to act.

“We contacted schools ahead of arriving to try to arrange things and as we gained momentum and people heard about us, schools started to approach us and the website saying ‘we are on your route and will you come visit’ – the whole project just grew organically.

“Now the teachers who we met along the way have the contact details of all the other schools in the network [so they can discuss climate change projects themselves] and we are sustaining the project as well by providing projects to encourage engaging of other schools.”

Now they have returned the Atlantic Rising team will be maintaining the charity’s website, producing educational materials for children around the globe, producing background material for the BBC about world communities and possibly even writing a book about their adventures.

But before any of that Tim and the team of adventurers will be taking a well-earned break and looking back with fond memories on their trip of a lifetime.

He said: “I guess the highlights were meeting the thousands of people we’ve met and having the Royal Geographic Society behind us and the BBC as well meant we got access to people we wouldn’t have met otherwise.

“But more than that being taken in by complete strangers round the world who take pride in the places where they live, and seeing the kindness of strangers really was reaffirming as there was so much human warmth.”

For further information go to atlanticrising.org.

Read the full digital edition of this week's Richmond and Twickenham Times - which will only be available online as an e-edition - right here on Christmas Eve.