Would you do a triathlon from the Arctic Circle to North Africa? Well, Matt Hollingham is .

The 25-year-old Penn State doctoral student is on a journey to raise money for a children’s charity that will span 61 continuous days, 3,500 miles, and 10 countries in honor of his late fiancée, Lovisa Arnesson-Cronhamre, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver on campus in 2023.

“My why is that I want to tell the world about Lovisa,” Hollingham said on a blog post. “I want to scream her name. Kind, considerate, caring, fiercely intelligent, hardworking, and both physically and mentally strong. Lovisa was, in all senses and connotations, the perfect daughter.”

Hollingham has set a goal of $250,000 to a combination of three charitable causes in Centre County Youth Services, Save the Children, and a scholarship in honor of Arnesson-Cronhamre. Folks want to donate can do so here.

The Wheathampstead, England, native chose the charities because of his experience with them. He said Save the Children does “incredible work across the globe in areas and communities where it matters the most,” and thinks CCYS is an impressive cause within the Penn State community.

As of the time this is being published, Hollingham is not on pace to hit the $250,000 goal he set before the journey, raising $19,200 so far, but hasn’t wavered from the original mark and remains optimistic.

In terms of the money to actually complete the trip, local tourism agency Happy Valley Adventure Bureau has sponsered Hollingham and helped to organize a send-off party.

Hollingham said the support from the Bureau and the entire Penn State communtiy has been amazing.

The support is much needed as he enters week four of his journey, currently running through Sweden, where Arnesson-Cronhamre is from, and recently stopped at her house to meet up with her parents as well as his. This was intentially apart of the path, which otherwize was relatively randomly choosen by Google Maps, he said.

“I get to learn about Lovisa’s homeland and culture, and the more I understand these aspects, the more richness I get in her personality,” Hollingham said.

With three weeks behind him, the hardest part has been running through an IT band syndrome and blisters, in torrential downpours.

It’s not like Hollingham hasn’t trained before, he’s done wildly ambitious things before, just never to this extent. In 2024, he hiked Mount Nittany 49 times until he accrued the 29,100 ft height of Mount Everest, calling the adventure ‘Mount Neverest.’ A few years before that in 2022 he 2021 he walked across Hadrian’s Wall in the north coast of England non-stop over 70 miles in 30 hours and previously walked 450 miles from Glasgow, Scotland to London.

Hollingham said this time around, though, is “the hardest by far – physically and logistically – trying to make social media content to generate donations while traversing a continent.”

He’s been completing the journey with his friend Jack Hughes who has documented everystep of the way on his instragram. The two have emmased over 700 followers and been featured on BBC3.

Folks looking to follow along on Hollinghams journey can go to his Instagram here, or donate to any of his causes here.