19 February 2023 , 18:26
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The life-changing epiphany that would take Christian Lewis on a 12,000-mile journey on foot from despair to joy via an uninhabited Scottish island happened on a surfboard.
While struggling with depression and facing homelessness, the former soldier would find respite from his suicidal thoughts by surfing at a nearby beach.
And it was while riding the waves that he had a flash of inspiration to attempt to walk the entire coastline of the UK, a challenge that so far has taken him nearly six years.
On that mammoth trek, he has found the companionship of a dog, the love of a fellow traveller, fatherhood once more... and he has raised £280,000 for a charity close to this heart. That is one giant joyous wave to ride, all thanks to the smaller ones he tackled that fateful day on Llangennith beach on the Gower Peninsula in Wales.
Now Christian has written a book, Finding Hildasay, which is named after a remote island off the Shetland mainland where he spent three months during the first lockdown.
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Christian, who was battling depression, has found love and become a father again (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)The book, written on a notepad while travelling, has his own mental health journey as the driving force behind the story of his adventure.
“I thought it would be something nice to look back on in years to come, and try to get as many of the experiences down as possible.
“It was also important to me to talk about the mental health side of things and show that you can come out of a dark hole, there is hope for everybody that things will get better,” he says. Christian, now 42, left the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment in 2005, after winning custody of his daughter Caitlin.
But he struggled as a single parent, and it was Caitlin’s decision to leave home when she turned 16 that drove him on to make a change.
Christian had mounting bills, debt and the tenancy on his rented flat was coming to an end, and then he hit upon his big idea.
On August 1 2017, he set out on his walk from his home city of Swansea with just £10 in his pocket and camping supplies. At first, he struggled, going days without food and trying to sleep in a leaking tent.
Christian with his son Magnus, who was born after he met fiance Kate (PA)But he refused to give up, deciding to fundraise for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, as they had offered him support when he was unwell.
He often relied on the kindness of strangers who helped him as he took on his fundraising mission. Well-wishers bought him a new tent when his old one got destroyed by harsh winds and offered him food and places to stay.
Despite the support, he admits he sometimes felt lonely.
But things changed in March 2018 when he adopted Jet, a lurcher cross who would become his faithful travelling companion.
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“I knew she hadn’t been well looked after, but we seemed to recognise something in each other and we hit it off immediately,” he says. “Looking back I can see that I was still a little bit broken and she was too. She just followed me and that was that.
“When I was in the Army I was always with people, it was very much a teamwork thing and I had never spent weeks on my own in the middle of nowhere.
“Having Jet with me brought a new element to the walk, as I had somebody to look after again. I couldn’t ask for a better dog, she is so loyal.”
Christian was camping in Whaligoe, on the North East tip of Scotland, in November 2020 when he met his future fiancee, Kate Barron, 36.
“It was a case of being in the right place at the right time,” he says. “I was camped at the bottom of cliffs and she noticed my tent so she came over and briefly stopped to talk to me.
The former soldier has written about his incredible journey“Then, an hour later, Kate returned with some fish and chips and a couple of beers, and asked to camp next to me. We immediately clicked and spent the whole night chatting.”
Kate had initially planned to go on a round-the-world trip, but her plans had been thwarted by the pandemic.
Instead, she had been driving and camping around Scotland.
The next morning, Kate had to leave to return to her job as a teacher trainer. But six weeks later she joined him on his walk, where she has remained by his side ever since.
His book, Finding Hildasay, which is out now, focuses on the experiences Christian had before meeting Kate.
He documents how he learned to forage for food such as crabs so he could eat while camping on the UK’s rugged coastlines.
And he describes how he spent lockdown on Hildasay, which has no electricity or heating, along with a tale of how he reunited a message in a bottle with its owner after 20 years.
He says his family still has the South West of England to coverChristian’s journey understandably has changed since Kate gave birth to their son Magnus last May.
They no longer could stay in tents, so Christian used some of the money from his book deal to buy a vehicle which he converted into a camper van. Magnus is strapped to his parents in a sling while they walk.
And the family’s journey is not over yet. While speaking to the Mirror, Christian was about to board a ferry to leave the Channel Islands for Weymouth, Dorset.
He says: “We still have the South West of England to cover, then we will go up to Bristol then back over the Severn Bridge into Wales.
“I expect it’ll take another five months to finish. With Kate and I having a baby things are different and we are making slower progress, but we are really enjoying it. We want to bring Magnus up to love and appreciate the outside world and nature.”
The pair are planning to marry once their challenge is finished.
Christian says doing his walk, estimated at more than 12,000 miles, has made him the happiest man.
He adds: “If somebody had told me I would be crossing the finish line as a seriously happy man with a family, I would have laughed at them.
“Caitlin is also proud of me. I wanted to show her that if you put your mind to anything you can do it. It’s been an incredible experience.”
- Finding Hildasay: How one man walked the UK’s coastline and found hope and happiness by Christian Lewis is out now, £16.99.
- To donate to SSAFA, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/chriswalks
Christian Lewis' story is featured in the new series of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, available on catch up via ITVX.