Meadows restored by charity man set up as dying wish

A charity set up by a man with incurable cancer a year before he died has promised to restore 250 acres of wildflower meadows on Exmoor.

Mark Burges Watson was undergoing intensive treatment for pancreatic cancer when he set up Burge's Meadows.

The charity's aim is to sow 1,000 acres of wildflower meadows across England and Wales over the next decade.

Mark's widow, Fiona Burgess Watson, said: "At one stage he was having chemotherapy every single week, so it didn't necessarily seem like the best time to be setting up a charity but he was absolutely determined that he was going to do it."

Mark, whose nickname was Burge, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in January 2025.

Despite the "really extreme" treatment the 58-year-old was undergoing, Fiona said he was "determined" to launch his charity.

"He decided his time left wasn't long and he was going to found this charity that was going to help create all these wild flower meadows across the country," she said.

"He just loved the English countryside."

She said it was "extraordinary" as Burge's Meadow was registered as a charity six months later and was launched at a party in London four months after that, in November 2025.

"He was in hospital - he was terribly ill but he was determined that he was going to be there," Fiona said.

"So the hospital let him out for three hours to come to the [launch] and amazingly he managed to stand up and make a speech and raise lots of money to get the charity off to a flying start."

Since then, with projects ranging from just under an acre to more than 250 acres, the charity has already managed to achieve a third of its 1,000 acre target.

"He signed the first agreement that we had allocating funds for meadows - which was with Exmoor National Park - and that was whilst he was in hospital in January," she said.

"He signed that just two or three days before he died.

"It meant a lot to him and we're just very grateful that he had the time to actually see it begin to happen."

Mark Sargeant, a trustee of Burge's Meadows, said the charity had donated a "significant sum" to Exmoor National Park and also signed an agreement to restore a four-and-a half-acre site at Monkton Farley in Wiltshire.

"We have now got funding agreements and funding commitments in place to restore over 300 acres of species-rich meadows across the UK with organisations [including] Exmoor National Park, Cheshire Wildlife Trust, the Ministry of Defence, Wildlife Farms and Estates and we've got a really exciting pipeline going into next year," he said.

Heather Harley, from Exmoor National Park Authority, said the "considerable amount of money" donated by the charity will enable it to restore 250 acres of meadows over the next three years.

"We've got a target to restore 4,000 acres of species-rich grassland," she said.

"We had funding up until March this year and we were left wondering whether we were going to be able to continue.

"But then we had this amazing donation from Burge's Meadows, and that has enabled us to fill the gap to carry on for the next few years.

"We're so grateful."

Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.