Anna Wardley

Endurance swimmer, charity fundraiser and 'Inspirational Woman of the Year 2013'

In September 2013 Anna Wardley, 38, become the first person in three decades to swim around the Isle of Wight, completing the 60-mile swim in 26 hours and 33 minutes. It was the culmination of her Five Island Swim Challenge, which included a 41-mile swim around Jersey in the Channel Islands and a world record swim around Portsea Island, home to the city of Portsmouth.

Since taking up open water swimming in 2007, Anna has raised £60,000 for charity through her swims. She has raised over £16,000 for the Samaritans in memory of her dad, who she lost to suicide when she was nine years old. After suffering with depression herself, Anna took up open water swimming to improve her mental health and fitness. That decision transformed her life and last November she was named Inspirational Woman of the Year 2013 in the Johnston Press South Awards in recognition of her endurance swims and charity fundraising.

As someone who struggled with sport at school, Anna took up swimming when she was 31 after reading about a Channel swim in a newspaper and set her sights on the same challenge. She taught herself front crawl at her local pool, and made her first Channel attempt the following year. She was pulled out after 14 and a half hours, a couple of miles from the French coast, and was hospitalised with hypothermia, shock and exhaustion. After a year out of the water, she returned to face her demons two years later and made it to France in 21 hours and 20 minutes despite getting badly stung by jellyfish and swimming through dense fog and pitch darkness. She was awarded the Channel Swimming Association’s Greatest Feat of Endurance Trophy for the crossing.

Anna has also sailed 36,000 miles as part of a 12-strong international crew in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, ran the London Marathon and tackled the Big Red Balls as a contestant on Total Wipeout.

To swim through pain and fear, Anna recites Muhammad Ali’s words: ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’ Anna has a natural ability to engage with young people, and her message that anything is possible if you set your mind on it and work hard at it has a powerful impact on students from all backgrounds. Anna is an inspiring role model and delivers her presentations with passion, energy and humour.