Restore our rivers, lakes & seas

​Hello, I am Laura Reineke one of the Henley Mermaids , a group of 4 women campaigning for clean water, and co-founder & lead at Friends of the Thames .

I began open water swimming about 8 years ago, after damaging my back running the London Marathon (hated every second of it), and that same year I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Initially I was only able to do very slow breast-stroke but gradually taught myself to do front crawl, then by training hard, swimming a lot and a little bit of coaching, started to love long-distance swimming.​

My ambition is to see our river Thames happy, healthy and full of life. To see our depleted biodiversity restored, leaving a legacy for future generations. To connect everyone to their blue spaces, so individuals take responsibility for their watery neighbours, after all, our waterways are first and foremost for wildlife.​

My biggest achievement to date is swimming the English Channel, which I did on August 23rd 2023 in a time of 15 hours 23 mins. Closely followed by 20 Bridges, around Manhattan Island, which was the hardest swim I've ever completed, swimming almost 50k in rough waters.

​​My 2025 adventures take me to LA, where I will attempt the Catalina Channel, the third swim in a triple crown of marathon swims, hopefully becoming the 6th British women over 50 to achieve this.

Then onwards to Oceans 7 , on track to become the 1st British female to complete this challenge.

Swims completed:

2017 - 2024

Thank you for your support. I truly believe that together we can amplify our voices for our river, fostering

a deep love and care that will see her restored, rewilded and revered.