A Colourful anti-fracking campaigner is walking 252 miles from his home in north-west England to Downing Street to raise awareness of the dangers of shale gas extraction.

Gayzer Frackman will be greeted by other supporters along his route from Lytham, near Blackpool, to London.

The first reception takes place in Wigan on Friday at 4pm.

The north-west has been targeted for experimental drilling by companies wanting to exploit the controversial method of gas extraction.

Mr Frackman has been campaigning against it since April 2011, when his home was damaged by an earthquake which seismologists say was most probably caused by test fracking carried out by energy company Cuadrilla close to Blackpool.

It was one of a series of small earthquakes which resulted in a national moratorium on the process being imposed, which has since been lifted.

Companies are offering communities hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of community benefits to allow exploration in their vicinity.

Mr Frackman said: "It is important that people find out the facts about fracking before they sign up to it, because contrary to what the government and fracking industry are saying, the process isn't safe and never can be. It also won't reduce our energy bills, and it won't create many jobs either."

He said the process would pollute water supplies, create toxic waste, put agricultural land out of production, and leak damaging gases into the atmosphere.

Mr Frackman's walk, which ends on November 5, is backed by the Greater Manchester Association of Trades Councils.