Ukraine conflict inspires 'frustrated' dad's skateboarding mission

Jon Wills said his six-day skating challenge came from the feeling that he "needed to do something"

Jon Wills Jon Wills with skateboard — Jon Wills said his six-day skating challenge came from the feeling that he "needed to do something"

A man is to skateboard 372 miles (599km) in six days to raise money for people affected by the war in Ukraine.

Jon Wills, 42, decided to skate the distance from Kyiv to the Polish border after feeling "so frustrated and angry" he could not do more to help people fleeing the war.

He will skateboard up and down the Bristol to Bath cycle path 28 times, hoping to raise £5,000 for Unicef.

Mr Wills said he was unable to prepare much, adding: "It's going to break me".

Starting on Sunday 24 April, the father-of-two predicts he will be skating for between six and 10 hours per day.

Mr Wills, who works as a window cleaner, and is from Lacock in Wiltshire, had a "huge injury" about a month ago, splitting his elbow open to the bone and bruising his ribs.

Illness in his family has also prevented him from training as much as he had planned.

"I'm going to be winging this pretty much. I'm pretty nervous about it," he added.

Mr Wills said despite being an experienced skater, 62 miles per day would be "quite hard"

Jon Wills Jon Wills skating — Mr Wills said despite being an experienced skater, 62 miles per day would be "quite hard"

When the war began in Ukraine Mr Wills started to become "frustrated" while listening to the news at work.

"I just had a random idea that we had all these people fleeing to the Polish border so why not do 372 miles, which replicates the distance from the Polish border to Ukraine's capital Kyiv, on a skateboard?"

While he is an experienced skateboarder, he said he was not used to the long distances and stamina needed to complete an average of 62 miles (100km) per day.

"Skateboarding for me is more about short bursts at the skate park," he added.

Mr Wills said skating was "something I love and I am good at so I thought I'd try and do some good with that"

A few friends and colleagues will join him on bicycles and skateboards for short parts of the challenge.

"So that will be nice to give me some motivation and the push that I need to get me through each day.

"It would be amazing to see people cheering me but in my head I didn't see it as a big event, it was just going to be this guy with a stupid idea to skate up and down a track to raise some funds," added Mr Wills.