Ukraine: Lewes couple walk “gruelling” 100 kilometres for humanitarian effort

Adam and Katy Luszniak, were joined by four of their friends in the Thames Park Challenge, to raise money for Voices of Children, a Ukraine-based aid organisation that provides psychological support to children who have witnessed war.

Adam said: “My grandfather was born in Western Ukraine and the Second World War uprooted his life and he ended up being displaced to the UK, which is why I have grown up in the UK with a Ukrainian surname.

“It struck me that what was happening in Ukraine in 2022 as a result of the Russia’ war was not too dissimilar to what happened to him. So I was driven to try and do something to help.

“We started training for that and set up a JustGiving page. We were keen to find a small charity like Voices of Children, that was on the ground in Ukraine, directly dealing with children that had been the unfortunate recipients of trauma in this war.

“We were aware that a lot of people would have already given to organisations like the Red Cross or UNICEF. While they are doing great work, we thought it might be more important to support a Ukrainian charity directly.”

The group of six set off from Putney Bridge in West London, just after 8am on Saturday (September 10), alongside hundreds of other participants.

Exactly 24 hours later, the group crossed the finished line at Henley Bridge in Buckinghamshire, having raised £19,000.

Adam said: “There certainly were a lot of ups and downs throughout the 24 hour period.

“The first 50km was quite a lot of fun, there were a lot of people on the course, so there was lots of camaraderie and egging each other on.

“But once darkness set in at around 7pm, it became pretty gruelling and it was more of a mental feat to convince yourself that you could keep going, then anything else, we had plenty of blisters we had to deal with.

“We set off as a team of six and we lost two members on the way to injury.

“The hours between 2am and 4am were the hardest, it was very dark, cold and misty on the banks of the river.

“It’s hard to keep your chin up and keep going, but knowing people had backed us with more than 10k was a huge motivation to get it done.”

Despite the setbacks, Adam and Katy crossed the finish line within the time they set out and raised well over their £10,000 target.

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Adam said: “Crossing the finishing line was a mixture of elation and relief.

“It was a very personal thing for me because part of the motivation for doing it was to do something that would make my grandfather proud, so I definitely had him in my thoughts as I crossed the finish line.

“It was an emotive moment, we all shed a few tears and had a big group hug.”

Adam and Katy’s JustGiving page is still open, to donate to their cause click here.