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Hunter Valley agency owner Lindy Harris took to the trail with 22 other women and invaluable Papuan guides to raise money for brain cancer research.
As principal of One Agency Lindy Harris in Singleton, NSW, this business leader is no stranger to hard work and maintaining mental discipline to get results.
But Harris was tested in a whole new way when she spent eight days on the Kokoda Trail raising money for the Mark Hughes Foundation to support patients with brain cancer and life-saving research.
Ultimately collecting over $400,000 for the organisation, Harris recently reflected that the experience was “the biggest, proudest and most amazing thing I’ve ever done for myself”.
Nothing could have prepared her for how emotionally and physically challenging the trek was, the agent related. Though she stays in top physical and mental condition to support her hectic life as a business owner and selling agent, Harris described the experience on the track as a struggle.
She, along with her other fundraisers, had each written themselves a letter with instructions to read if things became too intense.
But even while crossing ravines on bridges made from vines, and forging rivers chest-deep in muddy water, Harris was able to persevere.
It wasn’t until the second-last night that she read the words she had pre-prepared for herself, and not because she was on the brink of giving up, but rather because she realised the end was so near.
“I was so proud in that moment to realise that I hadn’t had a meltdown or cried once,” Harris said.
Back in her office in Singleton, as she prepares to open a second office in the Hunter, the agent said that her experience in Papua New Guinea has given her a new attitude on her daily life.
“Looking back at that time fills me with an appreciation for everything in my life,” she said, particularly as it put the experience of the Anzacs on that same path in sharp perspective.
“At times on the trek emotions were palpable. In particular, the time we spent on Brigade Hill was quite eerie. Also, walking among the gravestones at the Bomana War Cemetery, seeing the ages of the 3,000-plus soldiers who lost their lives fighting – most aged around 17 to 19 years. It was just so incredibly moving,” Harris said.
She feels that experiences like hers on the Kokoda Track can form not only an important facet of personal development, but contribute to the legacy of this place in Australian history.
“It’s so important that we share the stories to younger generations so that as a country we will always remember the legacy of those young men’s sacrifice, the Anzac spirit, and the invaluable assistance to the troops by the local Papuan and New Guinean men,” she said.
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