A 40-year-old farmer will be stopping overnight in Dunster on Saturday (March 7) during a 372-mile, 10-day solo run from South Devon to Westminster to highlight the dramatic decline of the Westcountry’s rivers and to raise money to improve them.

Setting out on Thursday from the mouth of the River Erme, in Bigbury Bay, John Mildmay-White is hoping to average 37 miles a day, following the course of local rivers.

Mr Mildmay-White’s ‘Run for the Rivers’ ultramarathon is raising money for the charity he founded, Wild About the Erme River (WATER), which highlights the growing pressures on rivers and the communities which depend on them.

The charity is also working to restore rivers to their natural healthy state by improving water quality and biodiversity.

Mr Mildmay-White plans on Saturday to run from Tiverton to Dunster via Bampton, along the B3222 to Dulverton and then A396 to Bridgetown, detouring to Winsford and then on minor roads to Timberscombe and Cowbridge into Dunster, estimating to arrive 5 hours 47 minutes after his 9 am departure, or, roughly between 3 pm and 4 pm.

On Sunday, he will set off from Dunster Beach at 9 am and head for Weston super Mare, following the coast path through Blue Anchor, Watchet, Doniford, St Audries Bay, Kilve Beach, and past Lilstock, before turning inland and looping around Hinkley Point via Shurton to Stolford. and back inland via Stockland Bristol, Otterhampton, and Combwich to Bridgwater.

From there he will follow a chain of waterways to the source of the River Thames in the Cotswolds, and plans to arrive on Westminster Bridge on March 15.

Mr Mildmay-White said he was making the run because he was brought up on the Erme and had watched it change over the decades with declining salmon and sea trout, bank erosion, biodiversity loss, and raw sewage spills from multiple treatment works.

He said: “I wanted to do something that would highlight the plight of our river and many others across the UK suffering similar problems.

“If more people take positive action to improve their local rivers, we really can make a difference.

“The Government needs to be much more rigorous in tackling river pollution and supportive of those who are taking on the task of river restoration themselves.

“That includes many of our local farmers, landowners, and community groups.”

Mr Mildmay-White, who lives near the mouth of the Erme with his wife and three sons and runs a 300-acre beef farm, has already raised nearly £9,000 of his £10,000 target.

He said: “Every penny raised goes directly to WATER's water quality monitoring programme, funding the scientific testing needed to identify sources of pollution and feed into our plan for long-term restoration of rivers.”

Along the way, Mr Mildmay-White hopes to meet other river support groups and river users.

He will be regularly posting his riverside encounters on his Instagram account, and has a JustGiving page where his progress can be followed and donations made.