She thinks nothing of tackling races of between 50 and 100 miles even though she only started running nine years ago.

Now mother-of-three Mimi Anderson has her sights set on a new challenge - to break the female world record to run the entire length of the UK.

Mimi, 45, from Smarden, intends to try to run the 840 miles from John O’Groats to Land's End quicker than the current record of 12 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes.

To succeed she will have to run the equivalent of about three marathons a day for 12 days.

She is due to set off on Wednesday and will be raising money for Beat, an eating disorder charity.

Mimi said: “I taught myself to run in 1999 and did my first ultra marathon - that is anything over the marathon distance of 26.2 miles - in 2001.”

Averaging between 60 to 100 miles a week in her training, she has also kept busy with plenty of races.

She said: “I started off the year with a 50-mile race and a couple of weeks later I did an 80-mile race.

“I then went to Chile where I did a 150-mile staggered race which I won.”

Mimi, who is being sponsored by the Inkerman Group, Cazenove Capital Management, ICG and Risebridge health and sports club, recently returned from South Africa where she competed in the 100-mile Addo race.

She hopes to raise plenty of cash for the charity that means so much to her, as she suffered from anorexia nervosa for 15 years.

She said: “I got it when I was 14. It is an awful illness that is difficult to get rid of.”

For further information visit www.marvellousmimi.com and to sponsor her visit www.justgiving.com/marvellousmimi