A group of runners on a mission to beat plastic pollution have spent the past six days running along London's River Thames and picking up litter.

The group collected more than 2,500 pieces of litter and ran 189 miles (304km) - almost the equivalent of an ultra marathon.

Michelle Parkes, 39, a marketing consultant from Kingston, southwest London, and Dermot Kavanagh, 30, a personal trainer from Putney, run community action team Plogolution, a "plogging" group (running while picking up rubbish), in their spare time.

During the six-day stretch, six people walked and ran the route and were joined by others for smaller sections of the path, including eight extra volunteers on the final day.

They were shadowed by a support van which was needed to hold the volumes of rubbish collected along the way.


Image: The team of 'ploggers' collected piles of rubbish during their run along the Thames

The team averaged around 30 miles (48km) and 12 hours a day, apart from on Tuesday when the group racked up 42 miles (68km) working almost 14 hours.

On their first day the group made it from the source of the Thames to Radcot and ended the sixth day running from Putney to the Thames Barrier.

The team picked up:

:: 1,107 plastic bottles

:: 489 glass bottles

:: 931 cans

:: 44 huge bags of landfill waste

Image: The team picked up more than 1,500 bottles (glass and plastic), and almost 1,000 cans. Pic: Plogolution

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Parkes said: "We were amazed by how much we picked up, and a lot that sadly in some cases we couldn't get to. I have also been blown away by the team effort.

"None of these people taking part have ever run that far or would consider themselves ultra runners, we are all just incredibly passionate about raising awareness and protecting the environment."

Plogolution also go into schools to set up school plogging clubs too where we encourage children to look after their local environment and stay fit and healthy at the same time.

:: Sky's Ocean Rescue campaign encourages people to reduce their single-use plastics. You can find out more about the campaign and how to get involved at www.skyoceanrescue.com