When Luke Blazejewski was having a tough time a friend gave him shelter.
Now he aims to repay that kindness.
On May 26th wildlife photographer and film maker, Luke, is running the Yorkshire Three Peaks to raise money for his friend Pavol Gajdos who recently lost his wife, Ana, to cancer.
After bravely living with the disease for several years Ana died in April this year leaving three young children.
Luke, from Salford, is aiming to raise £5,000 for Pavol, who has not been able to work during the last year due to his roles as husband, father and full-time carer taking up all his time. Pavol, also from Salford, runs a bike shop in Manchester.
Luke said: “I think everyone who knows him has been inspired by Pavol’s love and commitment to his family over the last year. He is a hero. But unfortunately, this has come at a cost; not being able to work. I wanted to do something to help him support his family, and himself, through this awful time.
“Pavol gave me a home during a difficult period in my life, and so I wanted to return the generosity he showed me by setting myself a challenge and hopefully raising some money for him and his family in the process.”
The Yorkshire Three Peaks is a 25 mile route described as the ‘marathon with mountains’. The route passes up and over three mountains; Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, with a total ascent of 1585m. To put that into perspective, the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is only 1,345m high.
The route is often walked in 10-12 hours, but Luke has set himself the challenge of running it instead.
“This is going to be my hardest and most challenging run. To make matters worse I’ve never ran a marathon and have never ran in Yorkshire… so what could go wrong.
“Luckily I’ve roped two friends into doing it with me. We’ve been sharing a training plan and we’ll be there to support each other on the day through the pain.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of people so far, and hope we can reach our £5k target over the next couple of weeks to support one of my best friends, as he and his family start to rebuild their lives”.
