Unbreakable Yana run for the defender

Unbreakable 12-year-old Ukrainian Yana Stepanenko, who lost both legs in a rocket attack on the train station in Kramatorsk, will take part in the Boston Marathon! On April 13, the girl will run the 5-kilometer course on prostheses to fulfill the defender's dream and demonstrate to the world the invincibility of the Ukrainian people.

Yana's charitable goal is to raise money for a sports prosthesis for a severely wounded defender, a patient of the NESZLAMNI Center, who lost a limb in the war. The girl wants him to be able to run like her.

Oleksandr Ryasnyi, 30 years old. He has been serving since 2011, the year Yana was born. He is from Zaporizhzhia. He was in the ATO, then in the JFO, and then the full-scale war. He was defending his native Zaporizhzhia area when a shell exploded near him last September. He lost his right leg. Now he is fitting a conventional prosthesis, plans to return to service and dreams of running.

For two months now, the girl has been intensively preparing for the Boston Marathon. She trains four times a week. Twice at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center with a physical therapist and twice more on the bike track and at the stadium with professional coaches from the PROBIG running club. Last fall, Yana already participated in the Lviv half marathon. Back then, she was just learning to use running prostheses and, together with other patients of the UNBROKEN Center, Ukrainian soldiers, she ran the symbolic "Mile of Unbreakability" - a length of only 70 meters. "When I ran for the first time, I had such unsurpassed emotions that I ran a little bit!" the girl recalls.

Yana Stepanenko was invited to participate in the Boston Marathon by the American foundation One World Strong, which helps veterans and civilians affected by terrorist attacks and military operations. Yana's goal is to run 5 km in Boston. By participating in the world-famous marathon, the young Ukrainian wants to remind the world that the war in her country is ongoing, children and adults continue to suffer and die, thousands of lives have been maimed, and the number of people with amputations is growing every day. But despite everything, Ukrainians remain unbreakable.

"I went through some very difficult moments and now I'm glad I can walk and run again!" says the indomitable Yana on the eve of Boston. On April 8, 2022, Yana Stepanenko lost both her legs as a result of a Russian terrorist attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk. The photo of her being carried by a surgeon at St. Nicholas Children's Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv went viral.

Yana received her first prostheses for walking and running in the United States. Last summer, after a year of rehabilitation abroad, she returned to Ukraine. Here, Yana continued her rehabilitation and has already received new artificial limbs for walking at the UNBROKEN Center's prosthetics workshop.

The Boston Marathon is one of the largest and most prestigious in the world. About 30 thousand people from all over the world take part in it every year.

Please support Yana and her charitable goal.

By doing so, you will help to purchase a sports running prosthesis UNBROKEN Center's.