A 61-YEAR-OLD man has started a 112-mile charity canoe challenge along the River Aire – and he will drink the river’s water along the way.

Robin Naylor, 61, is travelling the length of the waterway between Malham Tarn and the Humber Bridge at Hull, to raise money for the Aquabox charity, which provides aid for communities worldwide where fresh drinking water is unavailable.

His challenge – entitled Source to Sea – will equates to five marathons in five days.

Mr Naylor - who has been canoeing for about 40 years - set off at 10am on Tuesday, cheered on by family and friends, and should finish at about 7.30pm on Saturday. He will help sustain himself by drinking water from the river filtered through an Aquabox, which is capable of generating 500,000 litres of drinking water from contaminated sources.

Speaking earlier this year, Mr Naylor, who lives in Bradford, said: “It is an excellent charity and the challenge fits in with my whole lifetime of using water for a leisure point of view.

“For me the River Aire has always been a bit of an attraction. I read it was the only river in England that is canoeable from source to sea.

“The Humber estuary will be the real challenge – if there’s a wind blowing from the east it could become even harder.”