It’s no easy feat to cycle 1,200 kilometers, let alone in war-torn Ukraine as an above-the-knee amputee.

That’s exactly what Kitchener’s Jakob Kepka did.

The 67-year-old is a former U.S. Marine who began his cycling trip on August 11 in Krakow, Poland, and ended it in kyiv, Ukraine, a month later on September 11.

He said he wanted to raise awareness about the struggles war amputees face in conflict zones like Ukraine. His campaign is called HopeRaising Expedition.

“I wanted to show them face to face, right? Life doesn’t end with amputation,” he said.

Kepka, an avid long-distance cyclist, was working in Poland and Ukraine on the border two years ago.

On a weekend outing in Lviv, Kepka came across a young soldier who had recently lost part of his leg and was walking on crutches. Kepka wore his expensive bionic knee.

“He looked at him and then he looked at me and I looked at him and all I saw was despair in his eyes and a loss of hope,” Kepka said.

Kepka said he regretted not stopping to talk to the young man. Not only did it haunt him, it inspired him to act. He said the shame of not helping another amputee drove him to make the trip.

When he began his month-long expedition, his first goal was to raise money to buy prosthetic limbs for soldiers affected by the war.

As he rode with his team, he realized there was a bigger problem to solve: the availability of medical professionals to work with amputees.

“You can have a warehouse full of prosthetics, but if you don’t have a prosthetist and prosthetic technicians to fit those prosthetics, those prosthetics will never get to the people who need them,” Kepka said.

Kepka is currently working to develop partnerships with Canadian and Western foundations and universities in the areas of rehabilitation care to partner with clinics in Ukraine to develop programs that would help them recruit the qualified people they need.

The need

Yaroslava Kolodii helped coordinate the HopeRaising Expedition project, but said the real mastermind was Jakob Kepka.

The Freedom Space Foundation, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization, and a team of volunteers were also behind the event.

In an email, Kolodii told CBC News that Kepka was an example of “strength, determination and self-discipline.” Kolodii said the goal, giving hope to amputees, had been well achieved.

“The greatest need today is the training of specialists, as well as information and financial support abroad,” Kolodii said.

Kepka said there are still about 120,000 amputees in Ukraine and there are only 14 certified prosthetists. He added that there is also a major need for infrastructure.

“They need to find a way to integrate and assimilate the growing number of people with disabilities in Ukraine into society and daily life,” Kepka said.

“It’s a very complicated situation there”

When he became an amputee 10 years ago, Kepka’s main goal was to start cycling again.

By chance, he came across a Spanish para-cycling team with whom he was able to train in Barcelona. It took him three years to perfect his flying technique.

Kepka rides a conventional bicycle with only one leg. The trick, he says, is to pull the pedal up and down all at once.

The adaptation was difficult. He said some amputees in Ukraine are adapting to multiple limb amputations.

“It’s a very complicated situation there, much more so than here,” Kepka said. “Our prosthetists here don’t see what the prosthetists there see on a daily basis.”

So that’s exactly what his trip led him to see. He met with veterans, medical personnel, hospital directors, surgeons and specialists to examine the dire prosthetics situation in Ukraine. He learned a lot, raised funds, but above all wanted to raise hope.

“Living with a disability allows you to become the person you are meant to be,” Kepka said. “And changes you in a way where you can be of service to others if you choose to be.”

LISTEN | Kitchener cyclist raises awareness for war amputees in Ukraine: