WINDERMERE could soon be filled with mermaids and mermen following a business duo's move from Wrexham to Kirkby Lonsdale.

Kirsty Allan and Rachel Thelwell are the team behind Avant Garden, offering men and women the chance to don a monofin and get splashing.

Describing themselves as creative wellbeing specialists, the pair use their backgrounds in psychology and the arts to offer alternative therapies.

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"We've been very close friends for some time," Kirsty said. "And we both have quite unusual backgrounds in the mixture of therapies and the arts.

"We met through the world of burlesque and pin up and from there became good friends and decided to look into lots of different things we were interested in."

Although she said that the world of burlesque was an 'accessible' one for those of all different body shapes, genders, races and ages, she wondered if there was anything else that could be offered.

"I developed something called Purrfit which was thinking and moving like a cat," the 35-year-old explained. "So it's kind of yoga and meditation inspired but using a lot of games and very practical physical and mental exercises to show people how to master things like personal sense of balance, anxiety and other common issues."

The mermaid experiences came later, with Kirsty describing Rachel as a 'real lover of the sea'.

"She's very much a natural mermaid whereas I'm very much a natural cat, very much a land critter," Kirsty said. "She has a real affinity with sea horses and other kinds of exotic marine creatures and we thought how can we combine all these things to do with body confidence, balance, dressing up, a bit of fantasy and the sea."

During organised events or specially arranged trips, participants can choose their own merperson identity, spend time swimming in the water with a monofin and then taking part in a photoshoot in full costume.

"They all come to do something that's fun but also has a therapeutic quality to it," Kirsty said, explaining that people come to them from 'all walks of life'.

"Perhaps they are benefitting because they are finding that the preconceptions they have of beauty and acceptability of women and how they ought to look and behave was really challenged," she said.

"They could let that (body confidence issues) go and they could really enjoy being exactly who they are. The idea of dressing up and creating a character allows people to really express something within themselves that they've really had to suppress or hide."

The pair are now searching for appropriate places to carry out the mermaid experiences in the Lake District and have been looking for indoor pools.

"I was just thinking how great would it be for Windermere to have its own merpeople," Kirsty said. "The Winder-mermaids!"

Kirsty will be running a mindfulness based personal development group in Arkholme Village Hall starting on June 1. To learn more about the variety of therapies and experiences on offer, visit http://www.avantgarden.life/ or call 07764558803.