It’s been two years, eight months and 10 days since intrepid fundraiser Alex Ellis-Roswell started his epic walk around the entire British and Irish coast.

Not that he’s counting.

But the 24-year-old admits that, almost 1,000 days and about 6,000 miles down, he is looking forward to the home straight.

Speaking from Orkney in Scotland, the former Canterbury schoolboy, of Riverside Close in Bridge, says he still has a way to go, but is spurred on by the people he meets and volunteers from the RNLI, the charity he is doing it for.

“I’ve been really lucky,” he said. “It’s the people I’ve met who have helped me make it this far,” he said.

“I miss my mum. I miss the fact that it’s 15 degrees at home and it’s peeing it down with rain here.

“I haven’t quite acclimatised to Scotland.

“It’s actually been the easiest winter so far, though. I was up in the Outer Hebrides in January which on paper should be awful but actually it was fine, except for two bad days. I’ve been lucky with the weather, although it’s not as warm as Kent. I’m actually closer to Norway than home at the moment.”

He admits at times it can be lonely.

“It’s a weird loneliness which isn’t through lack of people.

“I’ve met more in the last year than in the 20 years before, but the loneliness is about always being new in a group, always moving on.”

Alex, who went to Barton Court Grammar School, set off on his 9,500 mile walk from Minnis Bay on August 3, 2014, eight months after his father, Ray – who had dedicated much of his life to charities – died.

His aim is to raise £50,000 for the RNLI and he has so far reached £41,000.

“The RNLI and its volunteers rely on donations from the public. They don’t get any government funding so it’s important.”

But Alex, who is also visiting all 249 lifeboat stations in England, Wales and Scotland, says the walk is starting to take its toll on his body.

He has been relying on the kindness of strangers to put him up for the night – either that, or it’s back in his tent. “The last time I slept outside was a couple of weeks ago.

“I stuck my sleeping bag down on some heather and I lay there watching the stars.

“Then I woke up to find I’d been sleeping on a nest of ticks. I jumped up as quickly as I could but my skin was crawling for the rest of the day.”

Alex, who says social media has been a huge help during the challenge, is expecting to be back in Kent in December or January.

To follow Alex’s trip or donate visit www.facebook.com/alexellisroswell or www.bt.com/DonateToLifeboats