Realtime pollution alerts needed on Windermere, campaigners say after boy nearly dies | Lake District

Real-time pollution alerts are urgently needed across Windermere, campaigners have said, as the mother of a seven-year-old boy canoeing on the lake described nearly dying after contracting a dangerous infection. coli from contaminated water.

Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital and had two emergency operations following a family canoe trip in Windermere last August.

Rex also caught the same disease coli She stars as nine-year-old Heather Preen, who died after swimming in Devon in 1999 and appeared in the latest Channel 4 drama, Dirty Business, about the sewage scandal that has damaged waterways across the UK due to a lack of investment and maintenance since the sector was privatised.

The family is backing calls for real-time pollution warnings on the lake, which welcomes seven million visitors a year and generates £750 million for the local economy.

Earley said the experience traumatized his family.

“I noticed the water was murky,” Earley said. “But I checked the Environment Agency website and found Windermere has excellent water quality, so I was relieved.

“It’s scary. We were doing something that an ordinary family does on holiday. People need to know what the dangers are. I can’t imagine when we’ll be back on the water and it’s really hard because we’re an outdoor family.”

Matt Staniek, of campaign group Save Windermere, which wants an end to all sewage discharges into the lake, said people’s illness stories revealed Windermere’s bathing water situation was not fit for purpose.

There are four bathing water areas at Windermere tested by the EA between May and September. But Staniek said people often use the water away from those spots, including the Earley family, who is at a specialist ski resort at the Brockhole visitor center.

A few weeks before using the lake, Olympic marathon swimmer Hector Pardoe independently water-tracked Real-time quality while swimming in the lake. Independent laboratory analysis recorded to parcel Levels of 6,898 colony forming units per 100 ml; more than eight times the expected threshold for an excellent bathing water classification.

“We have been told that Windermere’s water quality is ‘excellent,’ but that label is dangerously misleading,” Staniek said. “People are being admitted to hospital. Windermere does not receive daily pollution forecasts under the Environment Agency’s national pollution risk prediction system, which operates in some coastal areas.”

Staniek says he would like to see public signage and an accessible online portal providing real-time pollution information, along with targeted, high-frequency sampling to support forecast models away from the four bathing water areas.

A motion introduced to parliament earlier by Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron supports this call.

Earley, from Bradford, said: “A lot of people were swimming and paddling on the lake we were on that day. It wasn’t at one of the four bathing water areas on the lake but it was at a canoe centre.”

The family went skiing for about 45 minutes. That evening at their campsite, Rex became very ill with stomach cramps and rectal bleeding.

The family gathered and rushed home and he was taken to the hospital the next day. Laboratory tests were positive coli – later confirmed as follows: coli 0157, a dangerous bacterial infection transmitted through contaminated water.

Three days later Rex was transferred to Leeds children’s hospital where he was diagnosed with haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). coli infection.

He underwent an operation to prepare for kidney dialysis for 10 days before he was allowed to return home in mid-September. However, he soon suffered severe pain again and was taken back to the hospital; There, doctors discovered that his lung had collapsed as a result of HUS affecting his pancreas and sending fluid into his lungs.

“It’s back to normal now,” Earley said. “He was very sick, he looked terrible, but he was a real trooper.”

Graham Jackson, 42, of Cartmel, has been swimming in the lake all his life. But last June, Jackson also fell ill after swimming while paddling with his children near the Newby Bridge. She developed a urinary tract infection that turned into life-threatening sepsis when antibiotics failed.

Hospital tests confirmed the infection was a disease coli It is resistant to many common antibiotics. Jackson was discharged after 10 days of intravenous antibiotics, but his condition suddenly deteriorated again and he suffered septic shock.

“My blood pressure completely dropped and the paramedics admitted me to the hospital for another 10 days,” Jackson said. The consultant at Furness general hospital told Jackson he believed swimming in Windermere had caused the infection.

“I grew up here, spent my childhood swimming at Fell Foot. I want my children to be able to do the same without getting sick,” Jackson said.

Sources of sewage pollution in Windermere include discharges from United Utilities treatment plants and storm floods, as well as 1,800 private septic tanks and private sewage treatment plants.

Storm floods at Brockhole had not drained for more than three weeks before Aug. 26, 2025, when the Earley family went canoeing, United Utilities said. The company said it had no assets within 5.7 km (3.5 miles) of the Newby Bridge.

Big engineering work The project at Windermere, funded by United Utilities and carried out by engineering firm Jacobs, is exploring ways to remove all sewage pollution from the world heritage lake. The report will be given in July. Staniek said the government should implement the study as soon as it is completed.

In a statement, the EA said: “All four designated bathing waters at Windermere have been consistently rated excellent since 2015 under the stringent, legally defined monitoring and data analysis standards we must comply with. “At Windermere, we continue our extensive monitoring programme, including testing for bacteria. [affect] Human health on a weekly basis during the bathing water season.

A spokesman for United Utilities said: “Windermere is incredibly special to many of us and we are saddened to hear that anyone may have become unwell after visiting the lake. Our thoughts are with those affected. Although we have not been contacted by individuals or health authorities, we take such concerns very seriously.”

The company said it was making the biggest investment in wastewater infrastructure around the lake in more than a century, spending £200 million over the next four years to reduce leaks from storm floods and improve wastewater treatment at its sites.