CANOEISTS are set to row more than 130 miles in a bid to get water for people living through crippling drought.

Teresa Yonge, 62, and James Perkins, 30, both from Colchester, planned to row the length of the River Thames to raise cash to buy water tanks for the Mutemwa Leprosy Care Centre in Zimbabwe.

But because of social distancing restrictions, the pair have now switched the locations of the challenge to the River Stour.

They will be paddling between Sudbury and Cattawade six times in a 15ft canoe to replicated the distance of the famous London river.

Mutemwa is a special place for Teresa because it is where her uncle John Bradburne lives for the last decade of his life and where he cared for people living with leprosy.

Water is scarce there because of droughts across Africa.

To donate visit justgiving.com/campaign/JBMSwatertanks.