Anecdotal evidence that Lakeland Willow Water has healing properties is mounting. Simon Mowbray speaks to some of those who insist it has changed lives, both human and animal, and explains why the company can’t brag about it
When a brand owner starts talking about pain relief, it’s usually a pharmaceutical giant boasting about its latest pill or potion. So when a new mineral water company comes across something which seems to work wonders without a blister pack of tablets or a bottle of medicine in sight, then retailers appear to be getting the chance to tap into something rather special.
Lakeland Willow Water first caused a stir in February when The Grocer reported on the launch of the new H2O brand, with the company behind it claiming that it may have come across a natural antidote to deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
According to Willow Water Ltd, the presence of ‘nature’s aspirin’ salicin, a naturally occurring compound which the water picks up as it filters naturally through rare white willow bark in the Lake District’s Cartmel Valley, was a natural solution to DVT.
The result of that coverage in The Grocer was dozens of column inches in the national press which repeated the story of how farmer Philip Lynott discovered the water after noting that horses drinking from a natural spring on his land rarely fell ill.
Yet 10 months on, Willow would appear to have something even greater on its hands after a flood of correspondence from faithful consumers who have come forward to tell how the water has relieved a range of ailments including eczema, third degree burns and even revived a racehorse at death’s door. Such tales first gathered
credence when celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright was seen by millions of viewers of TV’s This Morning show, extolling the virtues of the brand at the end of the summer. She also told Radio 4 listeners and readers of her Country Life column how she believed drinking the water had made a cyst she’d had for 16 years virtually disappear and helped clear up a friend’s daughter’s eczema. The result was a surge in sales of the brand with Waitrose reporting a rise of up to 700% on one day.
Three months on, and Dickson Wright, not known for her endorsement of brands, remains unrepentant. “I can’t give any explanation for what the water does but it certainly helped me and my friend’s little girl,” she says. “I am not sure I would call it a miracle cure, but it would certainly appear to be a genuine health giving substance.”
Michael Chapman, a celebrated racehorse trainer based in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, agrees that there’s something special in the water. He first turned to Willow Water after a summer arrival at his stable picked up a severe leg injury hitting a fence. The wound turned septic and the horse lay down in a field to die.
“The vets drained the poison out of the wound but the horse just became weaker and weaker,” explains Chapman. “Then I remembered seeing something about Willow Water on TV and Philip Lynott’s experiences and thought it was worth a try.
“We put the horse on the water and I couldn’t believe the difference it made. Within three weeks he was eating.”
Like Dickson Wright, Chapman is reluctant to start talking about miracles and he declines to name the horse for fear of sparking a media circus when it returns to the starting line next year - “We’ll keep the water connection under wraps until he wins the Grand National,” he jokes. Yet Chapman clearly thinks there must be something special about the brand and has now put other horses at his Woodlands Stables on it. One of those, Ei Ei, came third in last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, despite being written out of the running by pundits beforehand and lining up at odds of 33-1.
Chapman claims he has also reaped the benefits of drinking the water himself, with the 66-year-old convinced it has helped improve his squash and tennis dramatically.
Like Chapman, British expatriate Moira Moreton, a retired accountant from London now living in Cyprus, is grateful for what she claims Willow Water has done for her three-year-old cat, Simba. Set on fire by youths three years ago, the cat had made a slow recovery from horrendous burns which left him with bare patches of fur and a raw bald patch around his groin. “I had considered having him put to sleep,” admits Moira,
“because he was in pain every time he stood up. But then I read about Willow Water in the British papers and organised for the company to airfreight out 24 bottles. The transformation was incredible. Within three days he was no longer in pain.”
It is not only animals that appear to be benefiting. Alastair Junor, a retired rubber industry manager from Berkshire, says Willow brought a marked improvement in his 20-year-old granddaughter Natalie’s eczema condition within a month of her drinking the water.
Before that, he says, only strong steroids had seemed to do any good, while an oversight not to take any of the water on a three-week trip to Canada led to a severe relapse in her condition.
However, Willow Water itself is under pressure from Trading Standards not to make any great play of the testimonials in any marketing or advertising material.
Eamonn Quinn, lead officer for food safety at Cumbria Trading Standards, under whose territory Willow comes, explains: “The brand really can’t profess to cure anything as a water, no matter how good the testimonials are. It cannot make any claims on medical grounds under the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. It can say it contains salicin, because it does, but no more than that.”
As a result the company is reluctant to join the debate, but one marketing expert believes silence may be the best policy in any case. Keith Wells, a director at brand consultancy Dragon, says: “Willow is already benefiting tremendously from consumers relating their own positive experiences to each other. There are very few brands which benefit from that to this extent.”
Trading Standards’ Quinn predicts that future legislation from Europe could be even tougher on claims about brands, so it could be something Willow will have no choice but to adhere to.
When a brand owner starts talking about pain relief, it’s usually a pharmaceutical giant boasting about its latest pill or potion. So when a new mineral water company comes across something which seems to work wonders without a blister pack of tablets or a bottle of medicine in sight, then retailers appear to be getting the chance to tap into something rather special.
Lakeland Willow Water first caused a stir in February when The Grocer reported on the launch of the new H2O brand, with the company behind it claiming that it may have come across a natural antidote to deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
According to Willow Water Ltd, the presence of ‘nature’s aspirin’ salicin, a naturally occurring compound which the water picks up as it filters naturally through rare white willow bark in the Lake District’s Cartmel Valley, was a natural solution to DVT.
The result of that coverage in The Grocer was dozens of column inches in the national press which repeated the story of how farmer Philip Lynott discovered the water after noting that horses drinking from a natural spring on his land rarely fell ill.
Yet 10 months on, Willow would appear to have something even greater on its hands after a flood of correspondence from faithful consumers who have come forward to tell how the water has relieved a range of ailments including eczema, third degree burns and even revived a racehorse at death’s door. Such tales first gathered
credence when celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright was seen by millions of viewers of TV’s This Morning show, extolling the virtues of the brand at the end of the summer. She also told Radio 4 listeners and readers of her Country Life column how she believed drinking the water had made a cyst she’d had for 16 years virtually disappear and helped clear up a friend’s daughter’s eczema. The result was a surge in sales of the brand with Waitrose reporting a rise of up to 700% on one day.
Three months on, and Dickson Wright, not known for her endorsement of brands, remains unrepentant. “I can’t give any explanation for what the water does but it certainly helped me and my friend’s little girl,” she says. “I am not sure I would call it a miracle cure, but it would certainly appear to be a genuine health giving substance.”
Michael Chapman, a celebrated racehorse trainer based in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, agrees that there’s something special in the water. He first turned to Willow Water after a summer arrival at his stable picked up a severe leg injury hitting a fence. The wound turned septic and the horse lay down in a field to die.
“The vets drained the poison out of the wound but the horse just became weaker and weaker,” explains Chapman. “Then I remembered seeing something about Willow Water on TV and Philip Lynott’s experiences and thought it was worth a try.
“We put the horse on the water and I couldn’t believe the difference it made. Within three weeks he was eating.”
Like Dickson Wright, Chapman is reluctant to start talking about miracles and he declines to name the horse for fear of sparking a media circus when it returns to the starting line next year - “We’ll keep the water connection under wraps until he wins the Grand National,” he jokes. Yet Chapman clearly thinks there must be something special about the brand and has now put other horses at his Woodlands Stables on it. One of those, Ei Ei, came third in last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, despite being written out of the running by pundits beforehand and lining up at odds of 33-1.
Chapman claims he has also reaped the benefits of drinking the water himself, with the 66-year-old convinced it has helped improve his squash and tennis dramatically.
Like Chapman, British expatriate Moira Moreton, a retired accountant from London now living in Cyprus, is grateful for what she claims Willow Water has done for her three-year-old cat, Simba. Set on fire by youths three years ago, the cat had made a slow recovery from horrendous burns which left him with bare patches of fur and a raw bald patch around his groin. “I had considered having him put to sleep,” admits Moira,
“because he was in pain every time he stood up. But then I read about Willow Water in the British papers and organised for the company to airfreight out 24 bottles. The transformation was incredible. Within three days he was no longer in pain.”
It is not only animals that appear to be benefiting. Alastair Junor, a retired rubber industry manager from Berkshire, says Willow brought a marked improvement in his 20-year-old granddaughter Natalie’s eczema condition within a month of her drinking the water.
Before that, he says, only strong steroids had seemed to do any good, while an oversight not to take any of the water on a three-week trip to Canada led to a severe relapse in her condition.
However, Willow Water itself is under pressure from Trading Standards not to make any great play of the testimonials in any marketing or advertising material.
Eamonn Quinn, lead officer for food safety at Cumbria Trading Standards, under whose territory Willow comes, explains: “The brand really can’t profess to cure anything as a water, no matter how good the testimonials are. It cannot make any claims on medical grounds under the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. It can say it contains salicin, because it does, but no more than that.”
As a result the company is reluctant to join the debate, but one marketing expert believes silence may be the best policy in any case. Keith Wells, a director at brand consultancy Dragon, says: “Willow is already benefiting tremendously from consumers relating their own positive experiences to each other. There are very few brands which benefit from that to this extent.”
Trading Standards’ Quinn predicts that future legislation from Europe could be even tougher on claims about brands, so it could be something Willow will have no choice but to adhere to.
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