Canberra hairdresser Jenni Tarrant and personal trainer Luke Harvey are walking 160km from Narrabundah to Mourya in four days next week, raising money to support vulnerable local families.
Every single cent raised by the pair - and so far they have raised more than $14,000 - will go to Toora Women Inc and Act for Kids, both organisations working to help families afflicted by violence and abuse.
"The pain and exhaustion of this walk is small compared to the physical and mental torment suffered by those surviving family violence, sexual abuse and neglect," she said.
Luke has been training Jenni, in general, for a decade. He's prepared her for other big fundraising challenges in the past such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, completing the Kokoda Track and riding a horse across Mongolia.
Now Jenni, the owner of Bond Hair Religion in Kingston, will be walking 40km, while suffering from rheumatoid arthritis - and fully expecting her toenails to fall off.
"The challenge for Jen is obviously getting there and then getting through it," Luke, 32, said.
"The challenge for me is coming up with ways around her issues that enable her to be on track fitness and body-wise, but not flare up old injuries."
The walk will be starting on Monday from Alive Health and Fitness at Narrabundah, where Jenni trains with Luke.
They will then walk to Queanbeyan, along Captains Flat Road, Hoskinstown, to just south of Captains Flat, then to Majors Creek, Araluen and Moruya, where they plan to arrive on Thursday, October 6.
"It was another mad thing I came up with," Jenni said.
"For me, it's always been, if I put myself in really uncomfortable positions, then that means people are actually going to donate money.
"I don't really like exercise so for me this is like pushing myself to the nth degree to raise money. And Luke must have had a brain snap and decided to come with me."
Their support crew is Jenni's husband Stewart Cross and Luke's father Rod Harvey, who owns the Alive gym and who will be bringing a caravan for them to stay in at night. They will be driving slowly with the pair to get them their safely, although won't be able to take the road to Araluen, which is closed due to a landslide.
Stewart said he was extremely proud of his wife.
"She's a pretty amazing woman. I'm very lucky," he said.
Rod Harvey said what his son Luke and Jenni were doing was "just terrific".
"We're comfortable and there are so many people out there who are not," Rod said. "Jen gets behind these people and has the culture of giving the money straight to the people who need it, as opposed to other large organisations which take 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 per cent in admin fees and things like that, which I think is wonderful."
Jenni called their latest fundraising campaign Walk the Talk.
"I suppose the name came from people saying they're going to achieve things and then they don't go ahead and do it. So it's about walking the talk," she said.
"If we're going to raise money and awareness around family violence and trauma in young children, then we really need to put ourselves on the line and walk hard."
Luke and Jenni will speak to participants doing a three-hour spin class at Alive Health and Fitness to help raise money for the cause before heading off on their trek. Awareness is as important as fundraising, Jenni believes.
"I think it's just knowing that by doing these fundraisers we can open up and speak about what it means to have trauma as a child and the issues around domestic violence," she said.
"There's 52 refuges in Canberra and they're full all the time, so for me, it's about people understanding what that means and that they get funding but they don't get funding for groceries for when the women and children go into a home for sheets or clothing or anything. So the fundraising we do helps with all of that.
- To make a donation to Jenni and Luke's Walk the Talk campaign, the link is here.
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