Kanyakumari To Kashmir: Indo-Australian Man Runs To End Leprosy Stigma

A childhood memory from Rishikesh, a cricketing hero from Australia, and 4,700 kilometres of road - that is what brought 23-year-old Om Satija back to India. Not as a tourist, but as an ultramarathoner on a mission to end the stigma around leprosy.

Twelve years ago, Satija visited Rishikesh with his father on a spiritual trip. While distributing blankets to beggars on a winter morning, he met a man with leprosy. It was not the disease that shook the young boy. It was the discrimination. "The way people looked away, the way they stepped back - that feeling stuck with me," recalled Satija, now a physiotherapist in Australia.

Years later, while researching public health during his studies, he came across former Australian captain Steve Waugh's work with children affected by leprosy in Kolkata. The connection was instant: "I thought, if he could use his platform for this cause, why can't I use my legs?"

On January 26 this year, Satija dipped his feet in the waters of Kanyakumari and started running north. His finish line: the historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar.

To complete his 4,700-km journey, he runs 50 to 60 kilometres a day. Every step is a message, pressed into the roads of Tamil Nadu's searing heat, the Deccan's monsoon rains, West Bengal's thick humidity, Punjab's scorching heatwave, and now the steep climb into the Himalayas.

There is no support crew, no fanfare. Just a backpack, a pair of worn-out shoes, and a message he repeats at every stop: "Leprosy is curable. But people still hide it because of fear and shame."

For Om Satija, the mission is simple: replace stigma with compassion for leprosy patients.

As he runs, his message echoes at every stop: "There is no shame in illness. Come forward, get treated, and live with dignity."

In every state, Satija pauses at schools, colleges, and village chaupals. He tells people that leprosy is caused by bacteria, not a curse. That it does not spread through touch. That treatment is free at every government hospital. And people listen. Students take pledges. Locals join him for a few kilometres - youngsters in Punjab, a teacher in Jhansi, a tea vendor in Nagpur, and a group of bikers in Udhampur - all carrying the message further.

"Many still think leprosy is a curse from a past life," he said. "I'm trying to tell them it's just a disease. And it has a cure."

India detected 27,428 new leprosy cases in 2024-25. Multidrug therapy can cure it in 6 to 12 months. But the stigma remains harder to treat.

The 4,700 kilometres between Kanyakumari and Kashmir are not just a statistic for Satija. They are a statement. "I chose this route to tell India that leprosy patients deserve dignity, not discrimination," he says.

Srinagar won't see a running record fall. But a myth might. "Leprosy doesn't spread through touch," he says. "Ignorance does."