Known for walking the UK coastline, Swansea's Chris Lewis left his home city with just £10 in his pocket and today, February 1, he appeared on This Morning revealing more details of his charity trek. At the start of his epic journey, on which he met partner Kate Barron, he had to forage and rummage through bins for food.
Chris left Swansea with just ten pounds in his pocket back in August 2017 and has since raised thousands of pounds for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, adopted a dog, found the love of his life and become a dad again. Talking about his journey, Chris said that the beginning was the toughest part.
He told Phil and Holly: "I would say it was more difficult at the beginning because nobody knew what I was doing and over time the generosity of the public and people was just unbelievable...at the very beginning I was rummaging through bins and foraging and I wasn't very good at it, so that didn't help."
Chris explained the effects of not eating properly, he said: "Yeah I lost a lot of weight, I looked like a human in skin basically." Chris set out from Llangennith Beach in the Gower, near his home in Swansea for the journey of self-discovery after he was left "lost" and "not knowing where to turn".
On his adventures, Chris has spent lockdown on an uninhabited island, left stranded with no electricity or heating and even reunited a message in a bottle with its owner after 20 years. The father, who had been a single man for 10 years, met a fellow traveler who he would end up striking a close bond and relationship with.
During his time spent in Northern Ireland, he adopted a dog named Jet from a family who were struggling to keep her and thought he could use the company as he navigated the islands off the Scottish coast. And it was on that leg of his adventure that he met Kate, who was on a special trip of her own. Initially intended to travel the world but had her plans thwarted by the pandemic and ended up in Scotland where she met and fell in love with Chris and the pair now have a baby boy together.
Chris has now released a book about his journey, called Finding Hildasay. Before taking on his epic trip Chris was a former soldier who served with the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment.
Both Chris and his daughter had both been supported by the SSAFA when he had challenging times when returning to civilian life, and felt he did not have the life skills many take for granted, like dealing with bills, letters and debt. The support he received from SSAFA motivated him to raise money for them while on his trek, which he is still completing as he heads back to Swansea.
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