Rebekah Cheung completes 16 half-marathons to help tackle violence against women

The charity worker’s feet were “pretty cut up” as she took on a ­gruelling winter challenge, running 16 half-marathons in 16 days to help tackle one of society’s most ­serious and enduring problems – male ­violence against women and girls.

Every day of the run was dedicated to a woman who suffered a violent death in the UK after the March murder of 33-year-old marketing ­executive Sarah Everard (below). By the time Cheung began, the femicide toll had reached 81 and she left two days open for crimes she anticipated would take place during the challenge. She was right, more lives were lost.

That’s what kept her going. “The middle days were really difficult,” Cheung says. “It gives you that drive to get out and do it, even in the freezing mornings when you’re going out before work.”

The Glasgow woman’s work is with White Ribbon Scotland, the national chapter of an international drive to challenge male behaviour patterns and end violence and harassment ­towards women and girls. She’d hoped to raise £1500 to go towards its activities, but collected donations worth 50% more. One donor was the sister of a woman on that list of 81 names. “These are real women, these are real families that have been impacted,” Cheung says. “You can never give anything back to these families, all you can do is work towards something that makes sure other families aren’t in the same position.”

Cheung’s run coincided with the UN’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based ­Violence, which every year starts on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, Human Rights Day. On the first day, 12-year-old Ava White was killed in Liverpool. A 14-year-old boy now faces trial on a murder charge. Also on that day 47-year-old Malak ­Adabzadeh was found dead from head trauma in a house in Liverpool. Her husband Mohammad Ureza Azizi was charged with her murder.

Three days later the body of 16-year-old Amber Gibson (below) was found in Cadzow Glen, Hamilton. Her brother Connor Gibson, 19, has been charged with sexual assault, murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice and Steven Corrigan, 43, appeared in court on Wednesday and was charged with attempting to ­defeat the ends of justice in relation to the case.

Cheung dedicated one of her 16 runs to all the women killed in the UK during November, and used ­another to honour care worker ­Tamby Dowling, a mother-of-six who was stabbed to death in Greater ­Manchester. A man, Abid Mahmood, has been charged with murder and assault.

While Cheung carried out her challenge on a treadmill at the gym for safety reasons during Scotland’s dark winter, she spent her first day running at Glasgow Central Station, where White Ribbon Scotland had a stall to spread its message. One of those who stopped to chat asked what the charity was doing for men. It’s a frequent question, she says, and one which fails to recognise the “systemic” nature of gender-based violence. The same is true of the online pushback she had from “young men who subscribe to ­inceldom”, Cheung states, something she experienced after dedicating one run to the victims of self-described incel Jake Davison (below), who killed five people in Plymouth in August before shooting himself.

The term is used by men who are “involuntarily celibate” and unable to attract a female partner. Men who identify this way “aren’t necessarily violent themselves”, Cheung explains, but “don’t like to see the dangerous side” of the subculture. “They hate that it is now being shown as a major driver of violence against women,” she continues.

She’s proud of completing her 16-day challenge and believes it’s gone some way to encouraging debate about the harassment and abuse of women. “We had such a successful campaign on social media, it genuinely feels like we have got people starting the conversation around it.

READ MORE: 16 half-marathons in 16 days: Runner’s feat for women lost to violence

“We were always hoping that was going to happen,” she says. “My ­elderly relatives would never discuss sexual assault or femicide, or if they have they very much minimised it. That was the first time they were open to discussing it.”

White Ribbon Scotland works with people of all ages, including secondary school pupils. That audience, says Cheung, can be challenging. “Boys of 17, 18 are very dependent on male validation and want to give off that they are cool and they don’t need to listen,” she says. “At one, the headteacher came in and told them that it was girls from their year who had asked White Ribbon to come in. That completely changed the atmosphere and they started listening. It’s girls coming out and saying ‘we are being harassed’ who are changing things.

“Some days I think, ‘oh my goodness, I did that’,” she says of her run. “I hope it started something.”