Real-time pollution alerts are urgently needed across Windermere, campaigners said, as the mother of a seven-year-old boy kayaking on the lake described how he nearly died after contracting a dangerous strain of E.coli of contaminated water.
Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital and underwent two emergency operations after a family kayaking trip to Windermere last August.
Rex contracted the same strain of E.coli such as nine-year-old Heather Preen, who died in 1999 after swimming in Devon and appeared in the recent Channel 4 drama Dirty Business, which covered the sewage scandal which has damaged the UK’s waterways as a result of a lack of investment and maintenance since the industry was privatised.
The family supports calls for real-time pollution alerts to be put in place across the lake, which welcomes seven million visitors a year and generates £750m for the local economy.
Earley said the experience had left her family traumatized.
“I noticed the water was cloudy,” Earley said. “But I checked the Environment Agency website and found the water quality at Windermere was excellent, so I was reassured.
“It’s scary. We were doing something any normal family does on vacation. People need to know what the dangers are. I can’t imagine when we’ll be back in the water, and that’s really hard because we’re an outdoor family.”
Matt Staniek, of the campaign group Save Windermere, which wants to end all wastewater discharges into the lake, said human stories of illness exposed how the state of Windermere’s bathing waters was not fit for purpose.
There are four bathing water areas in Windermere which the EA surveys between May and September. But Staniek said people frequently use the water outside of these locations, including the Earley family who were at a specialized kayak center at the Brockhole visitor center.
A few weeks before using the lake, Olympic marathon swimmer Hector Pardoe independently monitored the water quality in real time as he swam across the lake. Registered independent laboratory analysis. my coli levels of 6,898 colony-forming units per 100 ml, more than eight times the expected threshold for excellent bathing water classification.
“We’re told Windermere’s water quality is ‘excellent,’ but that label is dangerously misleading,” Staniek said. “People are ending up in hospital. Windermere does not receive daily pollution forecasts under the Environment Agency’s national pollution risk forecasting system, which operates at some coastal sites.”
Staniek says he wants to see targeted, high-frequency sampling to support forecast models away from the four swimming spots, as well as public signage and an accessible online portal that provides real-time pollution information.
A motion tabled early in parliament by Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron backs this call.
Earley, from Bradford, said: “That day a lot of people were swimming and paddling on the lake where we were. It wasn’t at one of the four swimming areas on the lake, but at a kayak centre.”
The family kayaked for about 45 minutes. That night at their camp, Rex became seriously ill with stomach cramps and rectal bleeding.
The family packed their bags and ran home, where he was admitted to the hospital the next day. Laboratory tests came back positive for E.coli – later confirmed as E.coli 0157, a dangerous bacterial infection that was acquired from contaminated water.
Three days later, Rex was transferred to Leeds Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition that usually arises from E.coli infection.
He had surgery to prepare for kidney dialysis, where he was on dialysis for 10 days before he was allowed to return home in mid-September. But shortly afterwards he suffered severe pain again and was taken to hospital again, where doctors discovered that his lung had collapsed, a result of HUS affecting his pancreas and sending fluid into his lungs.
“Now it’s back to normal,” Earley said. “He was so sick he looked terrible, but he was a real soldier.”
Graham Jackson, 42, who lives in Cartmel, has swum in the lake all his life. But last June, after swimming with his children while rowing near Newby Bridge, Jackson also became ill. He developed a urinary tract infection that turned into life-threatening sepsis when antibiotics failed.
Hospital tests confirmed that the infection was a E.coli strain resistant to many common antibiotics. After 10 days on intravenous antibiotics, Jackson was discharged, but suddenly deteriorated again and went into septic shock.
“My blood pressure went completely down and the paramedics took me back to the hospital for another 10 days,” Jackson said. General Hospital consultant Furness told Jackson he believed swimming at Windermere had caused the infection.
“I grew up here, I spent my childhood swimming at Fell Foot. I just want my kids to be able to do the same thing without getting sick,” Jackson said.
The source of sewage pollution in Windermere includes discharges from United Utilities treatment works and storm overflows, as well as 1,800 private septic tanks and private sewage treatment works.
United Utilities said storm overflows at Brockhole had not been discharged for more than three weeks before Aug. 26, 2025, when the Earley family went kayaking. The company said it had no assets within 5.7 kilometers (3.5 miles) of the Newby Bridge.
A major engineering study underway in Windermere, funded by United Utilities and carried out by engineering firm Jacobs, is examining ways to remove all sewage pollution from the World Heritage lake. You must report in July. Staniek said the government should implement the study as soon as it is completed.
The EA said in a statement: “All four designated bathing waters at Windermere have been consistently rated excellent since 2015 under strict legally defined monitoring and data analysis standards that we must meet. We continue our extensive monitoring program at Windermere, including testing for bacteria that may (affect) human health on a weekly basis throughout the bathing water season.”
A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “Windermere is incredibly special to many of us, and it is worrying to know that someone may have felt unwell after visiting the lake. Our thoughts are with those affected. Although we have not been contacted by individuals or health authorities, we take concerns like this very seriously.”
The company said it was making the biggest investment in wastewater infrastructure around the lake in more than a century, spending £200m over the next four years to reduce storm spills and improve wastewater treatment from its sites.
