When determination and perseverance move boundaries

How many times have you told yourself, “I can't”? And then you meet Lucija Brešković.

Lucija lives with albinism and low vision. She grew up in a family in which three of five children have albinism—a condition that, as well as reducing pigment in the skin, hair and eyes, can cause serious visual impairments.

She did not take up judo until she was 16. By her own account, she was neither talented nor particularly agile. What she did have was determination, discipline and perseverance. She chose to train and continued one step at a time.

Today, she has two European bronze medals, a European Championship silver and two Paralympic appearances to her name. She graduated in theology and now works as a library technician at Split City Library—a job many people thought her vision would prevent her from doing.

“That job came to me as a gift. Few people believed I could do it, but today I have regular working hours, a steady salary and a much easier life. I love being in the library,” Lucija says.

To find a book, she often has to take every volume off the shelf because she cannot read its spine. She uses a computer at 600 to 800 percent magnification and knows much of the library by heart. The barriers are real, but the right ways of working can keep them from closing off the opportunity to participate.

Alongside her job, she regularly runs, trains in CrossFit, throws the javelin and competes. At Walk for Those Who Cannot—Jarun 2025, she walked 73 kilometres. This year, she will walk with us again at the finale in Međimurje.

Not because she wants to prove that she can, but because this is how she lives. Lucija's journey does not erase challenges or barriers. It shows what can happen when a person has an opportunity and chooses to take one more step each day.

To us, Lucija is more than a participant in the project. She is a role model whose life shows what is possible. Different, yet the same. None of us walks alone.