Anna Wardley

Anna is a dynamic inspirational speaker who relishes the opportunity to tailor her keynote to the theme of your event. Her memorable yet relatable delivery inspires positive shifts in mindset, self-belief and performance.

Anna’s keynotes include the following themes:

How to find your inner strength and maximise your potential 

1. Facing challenges like an endurance athlete: Build resilience and a positive mindset
2. Reframing failure: Learn from your unsuccessful attempts
3. Overcoming fear: How to transcend your fear and smash your goals

Promoting wellbeing and positive mental health

1. Focus on wellbeing to unlock potential and performance
2. How to start conversations about mental health to save lives
3. Create healthy routines to cope with adversity and boost wellbeing

Living a purpose-driven life

1. A deeply personal mission: Creating a not-for-profit in a pandemic
2. Ground-breaking international research to change young lives
3. Turning the tide: Harnessing a traumatic childhood to create lasting change

Her lessons stem from a traumatic childhood, marked by the loss of her dad to suicide when she was nine, that left her doubting her own self-worth until the tide started to turn in her mid-20s when she sailed 38,000 miles in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

She then she taught herself to swim front crawl in her 30s and went on to complete a series of the toughest swims on the planet including swimming from Asia to Europe, Europe to Africa, the English Channel, and a 103-km swim around the Isle of Wight, a feat which took more than 26 hours non-stop.

Anna has been awarded the title of ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year’ in recognition of her ‘incredible swimming achievements and outstanding efforts raising money for charity’.

Anna talks passionately about creating a life with purpose; her philanthropic endeavours began with raising more than £150,000 for suicide-related causes through her audacious swimming challenges. Then in 2019 she was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to carry out international research to improve the support for children left behind after suicide. This inspired Anna to create Luna Foundation, a social enterprise dedicated to transforming the support for children after a parent ends their own life.

In May 2022, Anna was selected as a Shackleton Leader by the Shackleton Foundation’s unique leadership investment programme, which backs social entrepreneurs who embody the leadership spirit of Sir Ernest Shackleton, namely courage and resilience in the face of adversity. 

Anna’s speaking themes include:

Resilience: channeling adversity as a source of strength

Mental health and suicide loss: the power of post traumatic growth

The F-word…redefining a failure as an unsuccessful attempt

Channelling our inner power: discovering our inner strength and using it to achieve what is most important to us

“Anna is an inspiring person who has incredible willpower. She really is quite extraordinary. It’s rare to meet a person who is so focused, so driven and so able.”  Dame Ellen MacArthur

“Anna has amazing inner strength and determination.”   Davina McCall, British television presenter

“I was so inspired by Anna's talk and found it, like the rest of the audience, quite riveting. People didn't stop talking about her for months afterwards.”  Pfizer UK

“Anna’s message that anything is possible if you set your mind on it has a powerful impact. She is an inspiring role model and delivers with passion, energy and humour.”  National Citizen Service

“Anna immerses her audience and inspires with her passion. She keeps everyone enthralled with her story of sacrifice, pain, determination and the thrill of success.”  Seven Seas Club, Whitehall

“It’s not often that you will meet such an inspirational and driven person. I was drawn in by Anna’s entertaining delivery and strength of character…and the power of the human spirit to overcome obstacles and achieve what many would consider the unachievable.”  St Vincent's Housing Association

“Anna is crazy, determined but a joyful character. The challenge of getting in the water and swimming is second nature to her and she will not give up. She’s quite remarkable.”   CEO Clipper Ventures PLC

“Anna is a truly unique, inspirational and determined character who proves that you can achieve anything if you put your mind and body to it.”

St Helen and St Katharine School, UK

Anna's Showreel – https://youtu.be/xEecUkJjNVk