BRAVE sisters who faced years of sexual abuse at the hands of their stepfather before finally bringing him to justice will urge victims to speak out and seek emotional support when they take part in a charity walk this summer.

Danielle and Amanda Brown will join hundreds of challengers at the 20-mile Walkley Midnight Walk, along the Ridgeway, on June 13 in aid of Swindon charity, Breaking Free.

The organisation is dedicated to providing support and counselling to female adult survivors of sexual abuse, including rape, whether they experienced it as children or adults.

The siblings were just seven and four years old respectively when they fell prey to their mother’s new partner.

“This has been so hard for us to speak out about and it feels so uncomfortable, but we want to raise as much awareness as possible and we want to encourage others to speak out,” said Danielle, 30, from East Swindon.

“We’ve survived something really traumatic and we feel empowered and stronger now. We feel that we can do anything.”

While their stepfather was molesting both of them, the sisters only discovered each other’s plight when Amanda spoke out at the age of 10 after running away.

Their mother left the man and the sisters moved on with their lives as best they could.

However, they said they never fully addressed what happened until four years ago, when Danielle set up her charity, the Youth Life Project, which aims to support children through difficult situations.

In 2012, she launched the #youthstory twitter campaign, urging users to share childhood anecdotes and memories. The initiative grew beyond anything she imagined and she invited people to write their stories, to be compiled into a book.

“People were starting to share personal stories and it inspired me to do the same,” said Danielle.

“I started typing and that’s when it hit me. I thought, ‘he got away with it’.”

On the advice of a friend, she reported the abuse. He was charged with abuse, rape and sexual touching. In August last year he was found guilty on 12 counts and jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Now Danielle and Amanda are ready to tackle the gruelling walk in the hope of breaking the stigma surrounding sexual abuse.

“This is us saying he can’t hurt us any more,” added Danielle.

“It symbolises walking away from everything. We are just breaking free from all of it.”

“I want people to know, it doesn’t matter how long it has been: it’s never too late to stand up to your abuser. You may feel there is nothing to support your claim, especially if it happened a long time ago, but that’s not the case.

"It’s a gruelling process to go through and it’s not easy confronting your demons but the outcome is freeing and liberating and is sometimes the only way to get that closure.”

Breaking Free founder Ally Spalding is delighted.

“We are very excited to work with these strong ladies who have shown so much courage in coming forward to help other survivors,” she said.

To sponsor Danielle and Amanda, donate to Breaking Free at www.breakingfreesupport.co.uk.

The charity is based at 159 Victoria Road and can be reached on 01793 514339 or 07547 680839.