Ajana Lolat-Pažarauskienė Achieves an Impressive Victory: “My Heart Trembled, Tears Welled Up”

On Friday, at the Vilnius University Botanical Garden in Kairėnai, hiker Ajana Lolat-Pažarauskienė walked 19 kilometers and 261 meters in nearly 12 hours, thus breaking her own Guinness World Record set in 2022.

Three years ago, Ajana’s hike lasted 9 hours and 35 minutes. During that time, with the help of crutches, she covered 14.5 km. “It’s hard, I wouldn’t want to repeat it – but only until morning, when my head will again be full of ideas,” said Ajana Lolat-Pažarauskienė during this part of the journey. The woman did not stop and continued her Guinness dream hike for another two hours, throwing the ultimate challenge at her disability – cerebral palsy.

At 10 p.m., Ajana crossed the symbolic finish ribbon, having completed more than 19 km and breaking all previous records in this category. “I am very proud – this is a great achievement,” said Ajana. “There was a time when I couldn’t even hold a spoon in my hand, not to mention covering even short distances on my own feet. Back then, I went to China in search of salvation, to try alternative medicine. When I arrived there for treatment, the Chinese laughed, saying that the film Eddie the Eagle, directed by Dexter Fletcher – about a naive, clumsy British ski jumper who still managed to achieve his goals – was the story of my life. Now, I would agree with them. As the representatives of Vilnius University told me yesterday when they saw me off onto the track, I’m lucky that I managed to stay kindhearted in my life.”

Not only a good heart but also a strong character allows Ajana Lolat-Pažarauskienė to pursue her goals. One of the biggest is to spread awareness in society about assistance dogs. During her dream hikes, Ajana raises funds for her Mulan Foundation, whose cytologists train such dogs for missions in families where there are people with disabilities or autism spectrum disorders.

Vilnius University’s Vice-Rector, Professor Vilmantė Pakalniškienė, who saw her off on the Guinness dream hike, emphasized that being with a dog – sharing activities and petting it – has a positive effect on brain function: stress hormones are replaced by happiness hormones. “A sense of care for others emerges, along with the desire to pursue goals; a person’s inner motivation changes, and then everything changes – social life, psychology. People become much stronger, more motivated to achieve something, even when it’s tough. And a mission of an assistance dog is to help a person with a disability become independent, perform certain tasks, and feel anxiety in specific situations,” the professor said.
On the day of Guinness Dream Hike, nearly all of the assistance dogs trained by the Mulan Foundation gathered at the Vilnius University Botanical Garden together with their owners. They completed one of the last and most difficult laps of the hike alongside Ajana. “My heart trembled, and tears welled up when I saw our families with their beloved assistance dogs all together,” Ajana admitted. “Next year, the Mulan Foundation will celebrate its 10th anniversary. I already have ideas on how to honor this with another hike together with the team we’ve built. I see everyone’s efforts, and I promise I’ll come up with something new and walk kilometers for all of Lithuania and the entire Baltic region. For now, though, I’ll focus on my studies, because I recently received the news that one of my scientific articles has passed the first stage for publication in an international academic journal.”