From wheelchair to walking five miles

Only weeks before completing this year’s Starlight Walk, Radek Leśniak arrived at St Luke’s Hospice in a wheelchair.

Advanced prostate cancer had spread through his body, leaving him confined to bed and relying on his wife, Elżbieta, for almost everything.

“For more than a week, my husband could only lie in bed,” she says. “I had to help him go to the toilet and with other tasks. Even moving in bed made him cry because the pain was so bad.”

Just weeks later, Radek completed the five-mile Starlight Walk alongside his wife and friends, raising more than £2,000 for the hospice that helped him get back on his feet.

Radek was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year after months of worsening symptoms. By the time doctors discovered the disease, it had spread to his bones, bladder, lungs and lymph nodes.

Chemotherapy initially brought the cancer under control. But when treatment ended, the pain returned with devastating force.

After several hospital visits, a doctor came to the couple’s home and recommended that Radek be admitted to St Luke’s Hospice.

While recovering at St Luke’s, Radek saw a poster for the hospice’s annual Starlight Walk and immediately thought: “That’s for me.”

“The hospice was a lovely place and had helped me so much,” he says. “I decided that I had to do something for the hospice. Whatever happened, I was going to take part and finish the walk.”

Elżbieta thought the idea was far too ambitious.

“I thought, ‘It’s not going to happen. You’re not well enough.’”

But Radek had already made up his mind.

A few weeks later, he joined hundreds of supporters at the Starlight Walk, setting off alongside Elżbieta and their friends. Every mile tested him, but he refused to stop.

“The second and third miles were very hard,” he says. “But I kept saying, ‘I can do it. I have to finish this walk.’”

Radek crossed the finish line with his wife and friends by his side.

“I do not remember exactly how I felt during the final two miles, but I did it. I finished.”

For Elżbieta, it was an extraordinary moment.

“For someone who is fit and healthy, walking five miles might not seem like much,” she says. “For him, it was like running 10 marathons at once.”

Speaking from his home in Harrow, Radek says he is continuing chemotherapy while receiving ongoing support from St Luke’s Hospice.

Although he and Elżbieta do not know what the future holds, they are determined to make the most of every day they have together.

“This might sound strange,” Radek says, “because the past year has been extremely difficult, but this has also become one of the best times of my life because of the time I am spending with my wife.

“My life has completely changed.”

Radek’s story is only possible because of the kindness of local people who support St Luke’s Hospice.

To help more people like Radek, visit stlukes-hospice.org/donate