ONE dedicated woman has turned into a Big Clean Campaign all on her own thanks to the hundreds of hours she has put in to rid her area of as much rubbish as possible.

After walking around her part of the Lake District among all the rubbish people dump despite being surrounded by natural beauty, Diana Rutherford decided she had had enough.

More than a year ago Diana, who is also a councillor on the Blawith and Subberthwaite Parish Council, made the decision she was not going to live in a "messy place" anymore.

She started litter picking on her own along the road from Lowick Bridge to Sunny Bank Bridge, part of the national park with stunning lake views.

Diana calls it "her walk with purpose".

In the space of one year and one day she has collected 187 bags of rubbish and has no intention of stopping.

She said: "If I decide to litter pick a deliberate area then I plan to go for a whole morning or a few hours. I may decide to clear all the shore line and could spend a couple of evenings. I never leave litter to accumulate if I can help it.

"I recently spent about seven hours litter picking Gawthwaite Hill in three sessions and it is a long, long way from finished. This road is disgusting and embarrassing."

While Diana mostly works on her own recently the local church warden, Simon Woods, helped her get eight bags of heavy rubbish out of a stream.

Other residents do litter pick as they walk their dogs and so on and many people keep outside their houses clear of litter, including Gill Wardel, also on the parish council.

Diana added: "People do stop and thank me. I've had canoeists come off the lake to shake my hand. I've had tourists crawl in lake side gravel with me to pick up glass from beer bottles. It is a great conversation starter; people leave their cars, houses and cross roads to talk to me. It's rather nice, actually.

"I would love to join others in part of the Mail's Big Clean up. I come equipped, but a new T-shirt would be lovely.

"I'm afraid the problem is worse and it is quite depressing at times. Coffee cups, single used plastic bottles, it is endless. This is why I keep a total count of my bags, it sort of jollies me along and is a target not a moan."

Diana was keen to stress that her campaign comes from her disgust at what is happening and to highlight that even in the most beautiful areas too many people are littering.

She hopes her efforts will "prick their conscience".

Organisations, businesses, schools, groups and individuals who want to get involved with the Mail's Big Clean Campaign can email Susan Goodson at sue.goodson@cnmedia.co.uk or phone 01229 840216.

The Mail-driven campaign is again receiving a major boost from the continued backing of sponsors, Spirit Energy and key partner Kimberly-Clark.