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Radio presenter Sara Cox is this year's BBC star who is taking on a mammoth physical challenge to raise money for Children in Need. The BBC Radio 2 Teatime show host is running five marathons in five days - covering a 135 miles on foot - for this year's annual fundraiser. Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge will see the Bolton-born star run, job and walk from Kielder Water in Northumbria to Pudsey, near Leeds. She set off on Monday, November 10, and hopes to finish the challenge on Friday, November 14. Speaking about the decision to take part in the challenge, Sara said: “The problem is, when you get asked to do the Children In Need challenge, because it’s a huge privilege wrapped up in some extreme physical exertion, you can’t say no to it because why would you say no? “You’re getting offered the chance to do a massive challenge that is hopefully going to change loads of children’s lives. “The way I’m doing it, mentally, is I’m doing lots of five miles because at the end of five or six miles, that’s when somebody will put some ice on my knee and hopefully give me a bar of chocolate or something and then I’ll get out to the next one.” The 50-year-old aldo received some advice from Radio 2 presenter Paddy McGuinness who completed a cycle challenge last year and raised £10.3 million for the charity. She said: “The build-up itself is actually quite hard and Paddy was good. He was like, ‘look, just block out all the noise. Block out all the noise, and just get training’, which was helpful. “The challenge has completely taken over my life, the training and the build up to it. “It’s all hard work, but it’s all for a really good reason." Listeners can tune in to BBC Radio 2 from November 10–14 to follow along as Sara. For information on how to donate by text or online to support’s Sara’s challenge, please visit bbc.co.uk/sara. Carrying a Pudsey Bear backpack, Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge will see the presenter travel by foot through the sweeping moorlands and rolling hills of Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, starting from Kielder Forest on November 10 and ending in Pudsey, Leeds, on November 14. Monday will see her run from Kielder Forest to Hexham, following the River North Tyne and crossi Hadrian's Wall. On Tuesday, Sara will run from Hexham to Durham, passing through the town of Corbridge. Day three on Wednesday, will see Sara go from Durham to Northallerton, travelling through North Yorkshire. The following day she will travel from Northallerton to Harrogate, and end the week on Friday heading to Pudsey from Harrogate. You can track Sara throughout the week via a live tracker on the BBC website here. This shows Sara's location and route in real time for the remainder of the week. The image below shows where Sara was as of Monday lunchtime. You can donate to Children in Need 2025 via text or online: More information is available here .
