With less than one week to go Charlie’s Big Challenge is fast becoming a reality…

From 26 January to 1 February television presenter Charlie Webster will be running 250 miles and visiting 40 football clubs to raise awareness of Women’s Aid and encourage football clubs, players and fans to unite in the fight against domestic violence.

She came up with the idea of this Challenge last year whilst trying to think of a way to engage both sexes in standing up against domestic abuse and educate on what is so commonly referred to as a ‘women’s issue’, she explained.

Women and men, she added, need to speak out together to end domestic violence and set an example for the next generation that will make up our society.

Webster recently revealed that she was sexually assaulted when she was a teenager.

Saying she was waiving her right to anonymity to “break the taboo about abuse as a whole”, she said the assaults were carried out by her running coach when she was 15.

She told BBC Radio 5 live’s Phil Williams, “I got quite close to the running coach because you do.”

“You start to trust them when you’re a young kid, and he started to take me for a few private sessions because he said I was good and I could do with some extra sessions because that would really help.

“He took me into a private situation where no one else was… and then he abused my trust… he very, very manipulatively and very slowly sexually assaulted me.”

Webster said she did not tell anyone because she did not know then it was something she could report.

She said that it had been another, younger girl who began to record the abuse and took it to the police.

Webster said that sexual abuse at the time was “one of these taboos, like domestic abuse is now”, that wasn’t spoken about.

“That’s why I’m here (on the radio) as well,” she said: “It might help someone else bring it to light. I want to break the taboo about abuse as a whole.”

The man was later jailed for 10 years and put on the sex offenders register for life.

Webster has been training every day for months for this challenge, on a gruelling schedule that would test the mettle of professional athletes.

Charlie’s Big Challenge combines two of her passions, running and football, as she completes at least a marathon a day to run to 40 football clubs between Liverpool and London.

Watch this film, produced by creative agency The Minimart, to find out why Charlie is pushing herself – both physically and mentally – to the very limit.

Click here to find out where Charlie will be and when, and you can go along to show your support.

Charlie has put a tremendous amount of work into this epic Challenge, both in training and by gathering support from clubs – all this to help raise awareness for Women’s Aid.

Keep up with her efforts on Facebook and Twitter #charliesbigchallange. Help her raise money by going to the Just Giving site.

And of course you’ll be able to follow her progress during the Challenge itself.