From time to time we see the major events, where income is spent on charity. Sometimes there are concerts featuring the biggest stars, marathons and half-marathons in major cities around the world, and sometimes dinners connected with auctions of all kinds.
However, these are events that involve an army of workers, months of organisation and preparation, and very often a great financial outlay (usually covered by sponsors). Of course, such assistance is invaluable and the funds collected this way are a huge percentage of foundations’ revenues. Is participation in such events and actions all that we can do for the people who need our help? Is there anything else we can do as individuals, so that our help is not only a single financial act?
Awareness of the need for assistance arises in us as a result of impulses. The most effective, but also the most tragic, is the case when the disease is touching ourselves or our loved ones. In my case, it was the same. My mom found out about her 3C ovarian cancer in 2004 and her struggle with this silent killer took a whole seven years. During this time, she took about 100 chemo infusions, dozens of litres of blood (when the transfusion was needed), she spent thousands of hours in the hospital and survived some very serious operations. Her struggle, unfortunately, proved to be ineffective. My mother died in June 2011 and, for me, time stopped at this moment for quite a while. I wondered what else I could do to help her, what went wrong, what we missed. I realised then that nobody talks about ovarian cancer, and our knowledge of this terrible disease is practically zero. I thought that if I couldn’t help her, I’ll try to help others by increasing their awareness.
I decided that I would focus on raising funds for a charity supporting women with ovarian cancer and which is building one of the largest ovarian cancer research centres. However, I needed an idea for the campaign, so I could reach a large number of people. I didn’t want to be just an intermediary in raising funds and awareness. I wanted to actively participate in everything. Walking 100 km in 24 hours seemed to me like the biggest challenge and, at the same time, I could celebrate the memory of my mother. How to combine all these elements? Together with a friend, who went through exactly the same thing, we created a campaign involving the sale of our steps that we had taken during an exhausting 100-kilometre march – Back On My Feet. We created a website Back On My Feet on which everyone could purchase these steps and leave us a message at any section of our route. We started a group on Facebook, which had several hundred Likes in a few months. The campaign was a great success. Especially since we created it ourselves, and practically without generating any costs. All the money collected this way was automatically forwarded to Ovarian Cancer Action in London. We were sending out the press releases for days. We wanted to get as many people talking about this terrible disease as we could. To our surprise, the campaign has been picked up by British, Polish and Swedish newspapers. Articles appeared in The Evening Standard, and we were interviewed by The Sun.
The march itself was an extraordinary feat for us. I got to the finish line dehydrated and with no feeling in my toes. However, the satisfaction of finishing the ultramarathon was so great that the pain went quickly into oblivion. Before the march, we were doing everything to help other women. The march was dedicated to our mothers.
Just two days after the ultramarathon, I started thinking about the next campaign. I didn’t want the campaign to stop because we put a lot of effort into this. This time, I went a step further and I recorded a song with my friends, which was to be the leitmotif of the next action. The entire campaign focused again around a march which was about to happen, a few months after the last one. Both campaigns got huge attention from hundreds of people. We collected about £6,000.
Long-distance marches have become a way of life for me. I still wanted more and more. Then came the idea of organising something really big. I decided to walk across Scotland from west to east, to Cape Wrath (The highest point of the north-west of Great Britain) – almost 400km alone through one of the wildest regions in Europe, untouched by man. I was about to live in a tent and cook for myself. It was the only option! This time, I tried to persuade people to create a hand-written messages to their mothers and publish them on the Back On My Feet website. One message for every kilometre I was going to walk. I received support that I would never have expected. People from all over the world decided to speak openly about ovarian cancer, and their heartfelt messages to their mothers. I also created a message to my mum in the form of a short film, in which I spoke about what I intended to do. Just before the long march, I learned that the film was nominated for the award for best non-profit video in the world in the Change Agent category (awarded annually by YouTube and See3 Communication). After counting all the votes from all over the world, it turned out that my video message won. This incredible success has given me a lot of strength to meet every adversity during the march.
After three weeks of solo walking, I came back home. I received a lot of emails from women struggling with ovarian cancer, in which they simply expressed their gratitude for the help in activities in the fight against this terrible disease. The action spread ever more widely and was also supported by the living legend of backpacking – Chris Townsend – and many celebrities. We have collected more than £8,000 for research centres on ovarian cancer.
As you can see, a single payment to a foundation’s account is not the only response to the growing need for helping people struggling with various illnesses. Sometimes, the use of your skills in a different way may give you quite unexpected results. Long-distance marches became something special for me and I can not imagine my life without them now. I just got back from a long Lapland trek, where I was walking with my backpack through wild lands. I am planning other expeditions very soon, some of them also connected with the charity. All my travels can now be followed on I o to chodzi, as well as on Facebook.
Photo © Christian Kraatz