St Dwynwen's Day - Chris Lewis Interview

25 January 2022

Member of the Welsh Senedd, Rebecca Evans MS, joined SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity in recognising and celebrating incredible supporters this St Dwynwen’s Day, including Welsh fundraiser, Chris Lewis.

Former Swansea resident, Chris Lewis, has been walking the UK coastline since August 2017 to raise money for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. So far, he has raised over £260,000 to support members of the Armed Forces community.

The former British paratrooper set off from Llangennith beach on the Gower Peninsula, near his home city of Swansea, and has had an incredible journey. Chris spent lockdown on an uninhabited island, left stranded with no electricity or heating and even reunited a message in a bottle with its owner after 20 years.
SSAFA, which has eight branches and two committees in Wales, is thanking supporters this St Dwynwen’s Day, and ‘sharing the SSAFA love’ with those who have gone the extra mile to support members of the Armed Forces.

Rebecca Evans MS joined SSAFA via Zoom call to recognise and thank Chris for his efforts in supporting the Armed Forces community, in which she said:

“I get the pleasure of saying a huge thank you on behalf of SSAFA for the incredible commitment and passion that you have shown for the Armed Forces community and what a day to do it, celebrating St Dwynwen’s Day.

“Without incredible supporters, such as yourself, the charity wouldn’t be able to do the amazing work that it does for serving personnel, for veterans and for their families.

“On your journey you’ve shown compassion, including adopting your dog, returning a message in a bottle that was written 20 years previously, and most importantly, you’ve found love with Kate.”

Chris, who had been a single man for 10 years, met fellow traveller, Kate Barron, who he ended up striking a close relationship with.

Chris said: “Its just been such an amazing journey. The amount of love and support that I’ve been shown by people, even before I met Kate and Jet, it’s essentially been four and a half years of making friends, seeing the amazing people that we have here in the UK, and it all started in Wales and I’m so proud of that.”

Chris and Kate are now expecting a baby in the Spring and couldn’t be more delighted.

Kate said: “Since I’ve joined, we’ve met hundreds of people who have been helped by SSAFA, either themselves or a family member or a friend, and all of them have spoken so highly about the help that SSAFA is giving. That makes me feel an immense amount of pride in being able to do this for SSAFA.”