Mothers' plea to Prime Minister over sewage in rivers and lakes after children struck down with infections

Published: 17:48, 24 August 2026 | Updated: 17:52, 24 August 2026 Mothers of two children struck down with E.coli and campylobacter infections after visits to Lake Windermere are calling on the Prime Minister to step in and stop water companies from releasing sewage into rivers and watercourses. Iris Vanderstock, aged three, became sick after paddling on the shores of Lake Windermere earlier this summer, while Rex Earley, now eight, needed treatment at two hospitals after suffering temporary kidney damage – after his mother believes he just ‘put his hand to his mouth’ while kayaking in the lake with his family last year. Iris’s mother Samantha Southwell, 40, and Rex’s mother Claire Earley, 42, spoke out as Andy Burnham faces intense pressure over the issue, with nearly 350,000 people signing an online petition calling for him to ‘end the sewage pollution scandal’. Amid warm sunshine as the school holidays draw to a close, families have continued to flock to areas around England’s largest lake despite what campaigners say are the risks posed by unclean water. Last week, the Prime Minister said he was ‘angry’ that households ‘have been asked to pay more for years, yet serious pollution incidents are at record levels and the pipes are still leaking’. However, local water company United Utilities points to a complex situation with over 2,000 private septic tanks, agricultural run-off and large numbers of wild birds creating droppings. It added storm drains, which discharge sewage into the lake, were not operating in the area where Iris became ill for more than a month, and for three weeks before Rex became ill. In a plea to Mr Burnham, Ms Southwell – whose daughter suffered a campylobacter infection on July 2 after paddling at Bowness-on-Windermere but has made a full recovery - said: ‘Profit shouldn’t be more important than the welfare of the public. New regulations and laws need to be put in place to prevent things like this happening.’ Iris Vanderstock, aged three, pictured paddling on the short of Lake Windermere last month Claire Earley with her son Rex, now aged eight, who spent six weeks in hospital Mrs Earley, whose son took weeks to recover after contracting E.coli last August during an activity session at Brockhole visitor centre, near Troutbeck, which is managed by the Lake District National Park Authority, said: ‘Windermere is a gem of the Lake District. You’d think its waters would be protected somehow.’ Matt Staniek, of the Save Windermere campaign group, said: ‘If Andy Burnham is going to change the exploitation of our lakes, rivers and seas, let Windermere be the test of his leadership. We invite the Prime Minister to come to Windermere and meet us and the victims of poor water quality in the lake.’ Ms Southwell, of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, said the family visited Windermere during a trip to the Haven Lakeside holiday complex. They went to the water’s edge after feeling reassured because other parents and children were gathered there. But two days later, her daughter began suffering severe sickness and diarrhoea, and a high temperature. She took Iris for an emergency appointment with the family’s GP, who diagnosed the infection from a stool sample and said it was likely to have been from contamination in Windermere’s waters. Ms Southwell, a mother-of-three, said: ‘The GP asked where we’d been and what we’d eaten. I said we’d been to the Lake District and to Windermere and she said she’d been there two years ago, took part in a water sports event and became more ill than she’d ever been.’ She said the doctor initially wanted Iris to go to hospital for further tests but she began to show signs of recovery. Mrs Earley said her son became ill with stomach cramps in the early hours of the morning following an afternoon kayaking trip which also involved her husband Andy, son Rory, 10, and daughter Pippa, five, while staying in the Lake District on the Tuesday after the August Bank Holiday last year. Rex Earley needed an operation, dialysis and transfusions after E.coli infection NHS 111 initially put Rex’s condition down to gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining. Rex was taken to the family’s GP and then to Airedale Hospital, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, close to the family home. But he was later transferred to Leeds General Infirmary for an operation followed by dialysis and multiple transfusions. Three weeks later, Rex was briefly allowed home but returned to hospital a few days later with a collapsed lung due to a damaged pancreas caused by the original infections. ‘He was in hospital for a total of six weeks,’ Mrs Earley said. ‘The link between Rex’s condition and the E.coli in the water was made when medical staff asked where we’d been. We said, only to Windermere, and they nodded and said, that’s the link.’ She added: ‘Rex was in the water less than half an hour. We were rowing in the kayak and water goes on your hands. I imagine he’d just put his hand to his mouth.’ The Save Windermere campaign has attracted high-profile support from celebrities including Feargal Sharkey, Steve Coogan, Lee Mack and Paul Whitehouse. Water company United Utilities said it is investing £200m at Windermere to ‘help improve and protect water quality of the lake’, reducing discharges from storm overflows. A spokesperson for United Utilities said: 'Windermere is a special place for many people, and we are sorry to hear that anyone may have become unwell after visiting the lake.  'We want to reassure people that none of our storm overflows near Brockhole or Cockshott Point had operated in the weeks before these incidents. 'We remain committed to improving water quality in Windermere, with £200 million being invested across the catchment over the next four years.  'Our efforts are already showing results with a reduction of 21% in storm overflow spills in the last year, and by 2030 they will be down to the Government’s target 20 years early. 'We also know more needs to be done to make the lake resilient to the growing impacts of climate change. That is why we have been working with a coalition of local stakeholders, campaign groups, regulators, international experts and leading engineers to evaluate options for a UK-first solution that would divert all wastewater and highways run-off away from the lake, resulting in only rainwater entering Windermere and protecting it for generations to come.'