INSPIRATIONAL Droitwich woman Lakshya Jain has solo hiked over 2000 miles across 137 days in the freezing cold, scorching heat and blistering snow in a bid to reduce healthcare inequality around the globe.
The 24-year-old has raised almost £7,000 and awareness for the Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders charity through her grueling trek.
She decided to brave the trek due to a lifelong love and appreciation for the NHS and a desire to give everyone across the world access to the same level of care.
She trained from couch to half-marathon in 2020 and even overcame a serious bike accident in March 2022.
Lakshya, who worked and saved for a year to fund her hike, set off from her Spa townhome in February, targeting to travel to Edinburgh, where she had spent five years as a student.
After getting to Scotland via a 500-mile trek through routes such as the West Midlands canal network and the Pennine Way, Lakshya decided to brave the 800-mile-long Arizona Trail starting at the Mexican border.
She started in late April and aimed to finish just north of the Grand Canyon, but Mother Nature stopped her in her tracks when Southwest USA had one of their hottest summers on record.
Undeterred, Lakshya went back to Droitwich after 50 miles of just walking the Arizona trail in mornings and evenings, and within a week left once again to trek back to Edinburgh.
She said: “The biggest challenge was the remoteness of it, I completed the walk by myself and there weren’t many people about in those early winter months so it was a big struggle finding the motivation to get up every morning and keep walking.
“But I’ve seen so much of the country and it’s so beautiful, sometimes I had to pinch myself and remind myself I was still in Britain.
“It’s so easy to drive past these wonders and miss them but when you are slowly walking past them you are forced to stop and drink it all in and it was marvellous.
“I can’t really explain how I did it or even why I did it, I just know I have never been happier or prouder of anything.”
Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lakshya-jain-pct to donate to Lakshya.
