The girl who lost her legs during the shelling/Lviv City Council
12-year-old Yana Stepanenko, who lost both legs during a Russian rocket attack on the station in Kramatorsk, is preparing for the Boston Marathon.< /p>
She plans to run not the entire distance, but only five kilometers. Now she is carefully preparing for the race. This was reported by the Lviv City Council.
A Ukrainian woman was invited to take part in one of the largest and most prestigious marathons in the world by the American foundation One World Strong, which helps veterans and civilians who suffered as a result of terrorist attacks and military operations.
The goal of young Yana is to remind the world that the war in Ukraine continues, children and adults continue to suffer and die, and the number of people with amputations is increasing every day.
In addition, the girl will run a marathon to raise 615 thousand hryvnias for sports a prosthesis for seriously wounded 30-year-old defender Oleksandr Ryasny, a patient of the Nezlamni center. He lost his right leg in the direction of Zaporizhzhia. Now the man is mastering a conventional prosthesis, plans to return to the service and dreams of running. You can join the collection by following the link.
Last year, Yana already participated in the Lviv half marathon. At that time, she was just learning to use running prostheses and, together with other patients of the Unbroken center, Ukrainian soldiers, she overcame the symbolic “Mile of Unbreakableness” – a length of only 70 meters.
When I ran for the first time, I was very scared at first… Such were the incomparable emotions that, even a little, I ran! I went through very difficult moments, now I am glad that I can walk and run again. The famous American prosthetist Peter Harsh gave me running prostheses, and from that moment I fell in love with running again, the girl said.
We remind you that Yana, Yaroslav and their mother Natalia Stepanenko on April 8, 2022 were at the railway station in Kramatorsk, trying to evacuate from the war zone. Then Russia attacked it with a rocket with cluster munitions, as a result of which 61 people died, more than 100 were injured.
Yana lost both legs, her mother lost one, Yaroslav was not injured because he remained indoors at the time of the shelling. The photo, in which the surgeon of the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv carries the girl in his arms, went viral all over the world. Yana received the first prostheses for walking and running in the USA.