Cry Me A River…Beth Gill

World champion canoeist, Beth Gill, is gold medal winner at the Canoe Marathon World Championships, holder of two World bronze and two European Championship silver medals and reigning British Champion across many distances.

And now she is turning campaigner in a bid to stamp out pollution.

Beth, 26, from Newcastle, spends around 30 hours a week training on inland waterways throughout the world as part of the British Canoeing team, aiming to qualify for and represent her country in the Olympic Sprint discipline at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Not only has it opened her eyes to the damage chemical and physical pollution is causing to canals and rivers across the UK but it has also inspired her to raise awareness of their ecological importance.

“I saw a mattress going down the River Trent this week,” she said, “but, while pollution like that – and like litter and abandoned shopping trolleys – is an obvious problem, there are other unseen forms of pollution which are equally damaging.

“And I think most people see rivers the way I used to before I started canoeing,” she said. “They see rivers and they admire them but other than that that they probably don’t give them much thought.

“But rivers are part of a large ecological loop that starts and ends with us. If we wash our clothes in detergents with micro plastic, for example, then they make their way into the water system, fish ingest them and then we eat the fish.

“So, quite simply, if we poison the rivers we poison ourselves.”

Off the water Beth is in the final year of a degree course in natural and environmental sciences at Nottingham University.

“I originally wanted to be an engineer,” she said, “but spending so much time training and competing on rivers has allowed me to see them from an alternative vantage point – and now I’m hoping other people will see them the way I do.”

In the six years Beth has been canoeing she has seen a number of changes both in the use of waterways and the damage to them.

“Canals in particular are getting busier, with houseboats and freight,” she said, “which is great to see.

“But that’s brought an increase in oil spills and it’s common now to see an oily film across the water surface – and the environmental impact of that on fish, birds and so forth is fairly obvious.

“But it’s fixable. All that needs to happen is for people to be more aware.

“Hopefully, as canals move away from being industrial, then relatively disused waterways, to areas for communities to grow; with pedestrian access and paddle sports and lined with apartments and cafes, people will be able to reconnect with them – and learn to understand and look after them rather than hide them away.”