TV presenter 'thought MBE was a scam'

A TV presenter and campaigner who has been named in the King's Birthday Honours list said she initially thought the news was a scam.

Charlie Webster, 43, from Sheffield, said she thought it was "a joke" after being notified about her MBE for services to broadcasting and charity.

After covering global sports events including the FIFA World Cup, she revealed in a BBC documentary that she had been abused by her former athletics coach and now campaigns for domestic violence, mental health, and sports-related charities.

Webster said thinking back to when she was a child walking around the Peace Gardens in Sheffield, she would "never in a million years" have thought she would receive an MBE.

Having returned to Sheffield on Friday after working in the US, she said she "had the most surreal weekend" after receiving a phone call about the award while being "super jet-lagged".

She said the award "means so much because it's not about validation" it was "about the journey" she had been on.

Webster has overcome a number of challenges including recovering from a coma in 2016 after she contracted a rare strain of malaria in Brazil following a 3,000-mile charity cycle ride from London.

"The doctor said that I wasn't going to survive and my mum was flown over. I was meant to be presenting on the Rio Olympics [the next day] because I'd done the London Olympics."

After learning to walk again and becoming a regular runner, she said: "I've not survived this life to not be able to do the things that I want to do."

After being sexually abused by her former athletics coach, Webster opened up about her experience in BBC Three documentary Nowhere to Run: Abused by Our Coach, which was followed by a safeguarding review in the UK for running clubs.

Webster said she felt there was more work to be done around protecting domestic and sexual abuse victims and that she would "absolutely" continue her charity work, which includes campaigning on mental health and global health.

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