This year – “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” was a first of its kind. First in the sense that we had a ‘Chief Guest’ to share a few words and participate as well in our Awareness Walk! Also as a First – the 2025 “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” and “Dancing With Lupus” events of the awareness month of May, was organized by Mother and Daughter team – Mrs. Salote Lomaloma and her daughter Mrs. Lily Bolaitamana who is one of our ‘Warriors’, and is married to a British Naval Officer and resides in the UK. Her Mum Mrs. Salote Lomaloma and the rest of her family, reside here in Fiji. They were kind enough after our charity dinner last year – to offer to organize this year’s first and last events.
So “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” began as usual with all our warriors, partners, supporters, friends and families – gathered very early at the Albert Park Pavilion in Suva, on a slightly wet morning for our Awareness Walk. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that one of our very own Lupus Ambassadors, the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker of the House – the Honourable Lenora Qereqeretabua, showed up at the event! After a lovely devotion from Pastor Tiko Toganivalu of Equippers Church (Fiji) – Ms. Qereqeretabua shared a few words with everyone before Mr. Paul Simpson, our Lupus Zumba Instructor, took us for a ‘warm-up’ session, before we began our walk around the perimeters of Albert Park.
Our friends and supporters from Leadership Fiji’s Team Tilapia also showed up to participate, and also brought some fresh fruits and fruit packs to sell – the proceeds of which they kindly donated to the Foundation. The day which started out cold and dreary, turned out to be warm and sunny, with everyone enjoying a great start to the first Saturday of the month of May! 2025’s Walk A Mile In My Shoes had the largest number of participants by far, something the Foundation had been observing, since we began this journey together! Let’s make next year – even bigger! A huge “Vinaka Vakalevu” to everyone who came out today – to “Make Lupus Visible”.
