Have you ever wondered what it takes to swim the English Channel solo? Meet Laura Reineke, a fearless woman, fresh from the challenge. She shares her riveting 15-hour journey, fighting harsh weather, jellyfish and huge tankers, all while maintaining a laser-like focus and determination. Laura's monumental feat wasn't just a personal triumph, but a clarion call to address the pressing issue of water pollution. Laura tells us how her work campaigning for clean water as one of the Henley Mermaids swimmers has taken her across the country as she stands alongside the likes of Feargal Sharkey and Steve Backshall demanding water companies are held to account. Her story is a testament to the unbeatable human spirit and the power of single-minded resolve. She's a staunch crusader against sewage pollution in the Thames and advocates for robust sewage treatment systems. She's also a believer in music for all, and founder of the charity Henley Music School, but the school is struggling financially. Without additional funds it won't be able to carry on and hundreds of people in Henley who benefit from subsidised lessons,including hundreds of children and people with additional needs will lose out .
Have you ever wondered what it takes to swim the English Channel solo? Meet Laura Reineke, a fearless woman, fresh from the challenge. She shares her riveting 15-hour journey, fighting harsh weather, jellyfish and huge tankers, all while maintaining a laser-like focus and determination. Laura's monumental feat wasn't just a personal triumph, but a clarion call to address the pressing issue of water pollution. Laura tells us how her work campaigning for clean water as one of the Henley Mermaids swimmers has taken her across the country as she stands alongside the likes of Feargal Sharkey and Steve Backshall demanding water companies are held to account. Her story is a testament to the unbeatable human spirit and the power of single-minded resolve. She's a staunch crusader against sewage pollution in the Thames and advocates for robust sewage treatment systems. She's also a believer in music for all, and founder of the charity Henley Music School, but the school is struggling financially. Without additional funds it won't be able to carry on and hundreds of people in Henley who benefit from subsidised lessons,including hundreds of children and people with additional needs will lose out .
More people have climbed Mount Everest than have swum the English Channel. That's how tough it is, but it hasn't stopped my guest today. She's just swum the channel solo in just over 15 hours and she's done it to highlight the issue of water pollution. I'm journalist, angela Walker, and in this podcast I talk to inspirational people and discuss under-reported issues. Today I'm in conversation with Laura Reynicka. Laura, thanks for joining us. First of all, congratulations. Such a huge achievement and how do you feel?
Laura Reineke:
It was the best day ever. It was the toughest day ever, but the best day ever, absolutely fantastic.
Angela Walker:
So what was it like? What were the conditions like for that swim?
Laura Reineke:
Well, I started at about 2.30 in the morning, so it started off at night and the sky was really dark, the sea was really dark, it was quite cloudy and there was no differentiation really between the sea and sky and there was a big swell. It wasn't choppy, but there was a big swell. So the boat was going up and down. I was going up and down and I've never been seasick or motion sick before, but I was, and for the first three hours I was wretching and being sick and I actually thought the first three hours was eight hours. That's how bad it felt and I was in my head. You get little demons and this demon saying you're not going to make it because you can't keep your feet down, you're now feeling cold, because you're feeling poorly, and then you think, just put your big boy pants on and do it. You've trained for so long, just do it. So the sky got a bit lighter, I started to feel better and then the sun came up and I warmed up a bit. So it was all good.
Angela Walker:
Amazing. So how can you possibly train for something like that? Talk us through it.
Laura Reineke:
You have to be completely single-minded. You have to know that you have done everything in your power to make it to France, so that if you are pulled out for medical reasons or any reason at all, you know it's not your fault, because that could really that would be a very tough thing to get over.
Angela Walker:
Yeah, is it like when you run a marathon and then you like hit the wall and you're like I don't think I can carry on anymore and then suddenly you managed to get this kind of burst of energy that like sees you through?
Laura Reineke:
I didn't actually hit a wall. I had done all my training. I think out of the whole year's training I only missed three sessions and I had literally dedicated my any spare time to training. So I didn't hit a wall. I'd done the training, I was okay. Some people do hit a wall and you have to get past that. I think probably my wall wasn't a physical one, it was that first mental one. 90% of it, I would say, is mental strength rather than physical. Gosh. And how cold was the water? Do you know what temperature? It was? Between 16 and 19. So it's always slightly colder on the English side, of course. And then in the middle, in the separation zone, you get really cold and hot patches. It's very strange. You'd think, as it's one body of water, it would all be one temperature. But it isn't. And then on the French side it got to 19, almost in inshore waters.
Angela Walker:
So, and it's about 20 miles, am I right? 21. 21, get the extra marmots so the difference. So that's a, and you're swimming for a long time. What kind of things do you see while you're swimming that distance? So is that I actually swim?
Laura Reineke:
56 kilometers. You don't see an awful lot. It's quite, the water's quite milky and you can don't see a huge amount, but there are a lot of jellyfish. Jellyfish are the cleaners of the sea, so there seem to be a lot more of them at the moment because we're filling our waterways with poo.
Angela Walker:
Yeah, I definitely want to talk to you about the sewage pollution actually. But back to the swim. Did you see any boats or any?
Laura Reineke:
traffic, yes, lots of traffic. So you go, there are different zones in the channel. You start off on British inshore waters and then you have the British shipping lane, where the ships go one way, and then you have a separation zone and the French shipping lane, where the ships go the other way, and then in French inshore. So, yes, you see a lot of huge, huge tankers and things like that.
Angela Walker:
Wow, that's amazing. And there you are in the water, so small, bobbing around, trying to make your way to France.
Laura Reineke:
When you think of it like that, it does sound a bit strange, doesn't it? I think we, as swimmers, normalise things like this. So, really, for me, it was just another day swimming, even though it was massive, don't get me wrong. It was just another day swimming because you have to normalise it in order to be able to do it, because actually, in real fact, it is an extreme sport.
Angela Walker:
Yeah, of course of course it's so far and of course you've got like a support boat and told me through what the support's like. Who's there? What are they doing to help?
Laura Reineke:
So you have a pilot boat and he has his own crew and he. So there was my pilot, eddie Spelling, and he had two crew, and then I have my own crew. There were three people on my crew my friend, lee, another mermaid, joni, and Debbie Fraser. So one person fed me and kept control of my nutrition. One updated social media and we were live on BBC Radio Bach for quite a lot that day, and the other one was sort of motivational and kept me going on relaying messages from friends and family from the WhatsApp group onto a whiteboard so I could see some of them. Great, I bet that kept you going, did it? Oh, absolutely yes, that.
Laura Reineke:
And Debbie was amazing on my feed. I didn't even know what was coming next. I couldn't really. I tried to eat some solids but they all just feel like dust in your mouth with the salt and so it was liquid feed only. Really, how did she do that? So it's on a line, on a reel, basically, and they chuck a bottle to you on a line. You down it as quickly as you can, still kicking so you're not losing ground, and then drop it and they put reel it back in again.
Laura Reineke:
Wow what a setup. Gosh, it's amazing.
Angela Walker:
So talk to me about the Henley Mermaid. How did that get started and what's that all about?
Laura Reineke:
God started about six years ago. We all I've known two of the Moments for a very long time because of our kids at similar ages, but we all really met through Henley Openwater Swimming Club and decided that we didn't just want to swim on Saturday when the club swimmers were. So we set up a WhatsApp group which I called Henley Moments and we swam together. We get on really well. We're like sisters. We bicker as well and we argue and we you know, it's just like a family. And I had the bright idea one year because I'd heard other people have been doing it and another group in the club had done it to do an English Channel Relay, and I managed to con all the others into the fact that it was a really good idea. So that was in 2020. So we did the English Channel Relay in 2020 and then the Bristol Channel in 2021 and last year the North Channel, and we do various other swimmers, and each year we have a charity we raise money for.
Angela Walker:
So it sounds. It is sort of escalated.
Laura Reineke:
It has escalated hugely, mainly because last year our charity was Surfers Against Sewage. So Jo Robb, who's one of the Moments, she is also Green Councillor on South Oxfordshire District Council and she's been going on about the sewage pollution for some time, so she initiated it really, and then we've all just learnt a huge amount through Surfers Against Sewage to begin with. And then another thing we did last year was swim the length of the Thames from Source at Castle Eaton to Henley, and on our last stretch in November we swam under the bridge and then had a protest in Henley against sewage pollution, and from there it just skyrocketed and we now are amongst some of the top campaigners in the country for clean water.
Angela Walker:
What can we do about this sewage pollution? Because I mean, I've done podcasts on this, I've been reporting on it myself over the years and there is a legal case being brought against some of the water companies for underreporting the amount of sewage that they are dumping. But what do you think can be done?
Laura Reineke:
I think the only thing we can do we're slightly powerless in this is educate. Really, the failing water companies have relied on our ignorance to what's been going on and they've been unregulated because the regulators environmentally-oriented of what have just been underfunded lost all their money. They have not been pulling them up or regulating them in any way, almost so they've just been getting away with it. But now they're beginning not to get away with it. We need a government that will put really, really strong environmental measures in place, not softening them like they're trying to do at the moment, and we need to make change soon.
Laura Reineke:
We are in a serious water emergency. Temp's water are extracting a huge amount of water from our waterways and then putting it back into the system for us to use and then losing a third of it to leaks. So our rivers are really low and they get even lower and then they spill sewage into it, so it's much more concentrated. It's killing wildlife. It's killing the rivers are in really, really poor health and some are dead. The only way we can do it is to make everybody aware so that they can't get away with anything any longer.
Angela Walker:
What do you think about this legal action? How confident do you feel about that?
Laura Reineke:
Oh, very confident. We have proof that they have illegally dumped what is known as dry spills when there hasn't been any rain. In fact, one was on the hottest day of the year last year when there were hundreds of people in the river cooling off. They come up with all sorts of excuses that oh no, that wasn't a spill. I know it was on the EDM map, which is their monitoring of spills, but it was actually a mistake on one of the readings. Well, it's not true. We do have proof that they have illegally spilled.
Angela Walker:
Yeah, it's supposed to be in exceptional circumstances. And one might argue, if it's for 100 days of the year consecutively, that's not exceptional, is it? That's the norm.
Laura Reineke:
The service treatment works. Simply don't have the capacity.
Angela Walker:
You've been in good company, because I know that you've done some campaigning with Fergal Sharky and I've seen you with Steve Baxial. How has it been kind of like working alongside, campaigning alongside people like this.
Laura Reineke:
We've had a fantastic thing we call it mermaiding and we've taken our mermaiding to some fantastic places purely by the power of saying yes to things. We've got to do things that nobody gets to do. For instance, we got invited to Chelsea Flower show by a sculptor who uses reclaimed things in her gardens along with her sculptures, and we had to pose in our swimming costumes on press day at Chelsea Flour show and that sort of thing. But we've got to go to the house of Parliament with Fergal Sharkey and we've got to go to Steve Batchel's house and film with him. What a lovely man and we all swam in the river outside his house. And, yeah, we get to do some really fantastic things and these people are really important to us because they're basically our heroes and they are supporting the campaign. That sort of thing will make a difference.
Angela Walker:
So where are you going next with this campaign against sewage pollution?
Laura Reineke:
We are continuing our campaign and we'll just keep going until our river is happy and healthy. The poor Thames is really limping along. It's in really poor health. We want to see, first of all, the Thames cleaned up. We want sewage treatment work in Henley to have a proper upgrade. So sewage treatment works. Some sewage treatment works are due for upgrade in 2025.
Laura Reineke:
Thames water are only spending about two million on each upgrade, which means that they're not doing enough of an upgrade to stop them spilling, so there's absolutely no point in them doing it. They also aren't providing any sort of cleaning system to clean off the bacteria. So at the moment, all the sewage that passes through sewage treatment works and comes out the other side as treated effluent and is apparently clean water hasn't been cleaned of bacteria. So it's still got pharmaceuticals in it. So it's got antibiotics, recreational drugs, it's got hormones, e coli and all the things that fecal bacteria produce and that's going straight into our waterways and generally it's released into the tributaries that feed the waterways, where places where fish go to breed. So we've got antibiotic resistant fish. Swan numbers are down. It's really a horrific tale that people don't realise.
Angela Walker:
quite the same Like the scale of and I know we sort of touched on it earlier is in that the government was trying to relax the rules to do with building new houses. How can we get this balance between looking after our waterways but also providing new homes, which are desperately needed?
Laura Reineke:
It won't cost any more to use rainwater collection systems than it will to join it up to our combined sewers. Our problem here is we have combined sewers so all the runoff from roofs goes in with all the water from your toilet system. This is our problem, but there's been no investment into infrastructure since privatisation. Foreign companies own our water and it's easy for them. They're making really easy money and have absolutely no consequences. In fact, we need to have existing houses moved over to rainwater collection and to brownwater use for our lose and for that sort of thing. We are in a water emergency. North London in the very near future will be will be rationed on their water we are running out. It's a shared resource that isn't shared. So over 50% of the water that we use is used by the elite and the mega rich up in the Chiltern Hills with their swimming pools, their hot tubs and their big gardens, their watering. The other 50% is used by the rest of us. So it's not a shared resource that it should be.
Angela Walker:
That's really fascinating. I had no idea about that at all, and I want to touch on something else that you're really passionate about, which is Henley Music School. Tell me about your involvement, and I know that you're in a bit of trouble at the moment, yes, like many charities, we're struggling to raise the funds.
Laura Reineke:
So about 16, 17 years ago I set up Henley Music School. I set up Henley Music School in response to the government's pulling of funding for schools, when my children were at primary school in fact, and people kept coming up and asking me to teach Johnny the violin or to run the orchestra. And as I was running the orchestra, eventually it got to just my three children in the orchestra and I realized that kids just weren't learning music. In fact some schools they weren't even singing in assembly and in other schools there weren't even a teacher that could read music. So I thought, well, something has to be done here, because there is nobody to teach this subject and the kids simply aren't learning it. So it started off as sort of afterschool club and a bit of a, you know, groups and individual lessons. And at that time the Henley Festival set up a children's orchestra called the Henley Festival Orchestra and I ran that for a while. When they pulled funding for that, they asked me to take it on as Henley Music School, which I did, and suddenly I got like 70 extra kids. So I thought, oh, I need a bit of governance now. So it made it into a community interest company and it just grew and grew to the point that we need 60 grand a year to run. So it made charitable conversion and up until about two years ago we well COVID really raising the 60 grand a year wasn't too difficult. I mean, it was work, but it wasn't too difficult.
Laura Reineke:
Since COVID it has become really virtually impossible, and that's no exaggeration. Everybody's feeling the pinch. Our usual funders are either not engaging at all or just aren't giving as much, and because they're inundated with applications by all the other charities that are struggling. The worst thing about all of this is these charities shouldn't exist. I shouldn't be campaigning for clean waterways, I shouldn't be running a music school, because the government should be doing these things.
Laura Reineke:
They should be providing our children with a decent all-round education to make them decent human beings and active in communities and making the world better than when they arrived in it. At the moment, they're not. In many cases, the children leave school feeling absolutely useless because they've been made to do maths, english and science and that is it. That child may be a fantastic artist, a musician, a creative, and they've been made to do these subjects that they're not good at. So they leave with low grades and then they're made to feel silly and then they go and hang around on street corners and behave badly. They don't become decent members of society because they don't feel like they're wanted or needed or they're worth anything.
Angela Walker:
So what role? Tell me how it works at Henley Music School? Do you go into schools and teach kids? Talk me through that.
Laura Reineke:
So we provide all forms of music education to anybody. So we do curriculum in school lessons, we do in school clubs, after school clubs, individual lessons, ensemble work groups, everything you can think of, and for all of those activities we provide batteries of up to 100% so and free loan of an instrument, and we work with the school budget so no school pays the full price. What we try to do is take away any barriers to learning music. So refugees get automatic free lessons, people, premium children that's children on free school meals automatically get free lessons and some children on the autism spectrum get specialist piano lessons. Now we do this in a school in Henley that has a high number of children with additional needs, and the head there is absolutely amazed at the difference in their attitude to learning, their behavior and how it has affected the whole class, because they are more engaged and they're looking forward to playing the piano and their brains are being used differently.
Angela Walker:
Why is music so effective? Is it such a healer, do you think?
Laura Reineke:
It makes you feel something. People like different styles of music, different. I mean, you'll listen to different things from me, but everybody listens to music because it makes you feel something. It uses a different part of our brain and many of these children now aren't having that part of their brain used. But it's the part of the brain that makes you find motor skills better, your teamwork better, your concentration, confidence, everything. And the kids now the COVID children that are now in school have a really low understanding of communication. The teachers are really struggling with the cohort of kids that have grown up small and music is a brilliant way of bringing them together and making them work as a team and being able to relate to each other, but they're just not getting it.
Angela Walker:
So how serious is the situation with Henley Music School and what will be the consequences if you can't get this funding together? It's very serious.
Laura Reineke:
We are at zero as of the end of this month. We have had to put a halt on all bursaries, so we are not paying our teachers. Luckily, some of our teachers are carrying on anyway, and we are just really struggling. I'm looking at taking redundancy or unpaid sabbatical to save the charity money in order that we can preserve these bursaries and provide what we promise we will provide, but that leaves me as the only income earner in my household, without an income. We're at an emergency stage.
Angela Walker:
We need funds now, if anyone's listening and they work for a company that might be able to help out, or they could be an individual that wants to help out. What's your message to them?
Laura Reineke:
Please come and talk to me. I can tell you all about music school and I can show you the benefits that these children feel. People might think that well, a county council have a music service, but they've never had a music service in Henley because Oxford's such a long, thin county. The teachers mainly come from Oxford and they're not going to drive for an hour each way to teach two clarinet pupils or something like that. We really need it in Henley. All kids need it.
Angela Walker:
I mean, people might think well, henley is quite an affluent area, why does it need a music charity? What would you say to those people?
Laura Reineke:
On the outward-facing face of Henley. Yes, it would look affluent and don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very wealthy people in Henley, but equally there's a whole other side of it. We have the same families from low income. It's no different from any other, any other town really, only that it looks posh.
Angela Walker:
Norah, thank you so much for talking to me today. It's been a pleasure.
Laura Reineke:
Thanks for having me.
Angela Walker:
Thanks for listening and I hope you've enjoyed the show. Today I've been in conversation with Henley Mermaid and English Channel swimmer Laura Reynicka. If you have enjoyed the show, do leave us a rating and subscribe, because it does mean that, due to the algorithms, more people will get to find out about the podcast. And if you'd like to get in touch, drop me a line through my website on AngelaWalkerReportscom.