In April 2026, I will be running the London Marathon for World Jewish Relief in memory of my great-grandmother, Franziska Marion Lesser (née Oschitzki), who I knew as Sassy. I am running because her life - and therefore mine - is a direct result of World Jewish Relief’s actions. 

In 1939, World Jewish Relief helped make the Kindertransport possible, rescuing around 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution and bringing them to safety in Britain. Sassy was one of those children. She arrived in England alone at just 13 years old, forced to leave everything she knew behind. Her sister Judith, aged 7, and her brother Alfred, aged 19, were murdered in Auschwitz, along with her parents. 

At an age when most children are still being protected by their families, my great-grandmother had to rebuild her entire life by herself in a foreign country, carrying unimaginable loss. She survived because World Jewish Relief and its partners stepped in when the world was closing its doors. 

Because Sassy was saved, she went on to build a life. She had 3 children, 11 grandchildren, and 37 great-grandchildren - 51 lives in total that exist today because one 13-year-old girl was given safety. There is a Hebrew saying from the Talmud: “Whoever saves one life, it is considered as if they have saved an entire world.” For my family, that saying is not symbolic - it is literal. 

If you scale that impact across the 10,000 children rescued through Kindertransport, the legacy is staggering. If 1 saved child led to 51 lives in my family, then across the 10,000 children rescued, World Jewish Relief’s work has helped create the possibility of around half a million lives today. That is the true, generational power of humanitarian action. 

World Jewish Relief’s work did not end with the Kindertransport. They continue to respond to humanitarian crises wherever they are needed across America, Asia, Africa and Europe. In 2020, I volunteered at the Tikva Orphanage in Ukraine, which gave me a personal connection to the children and communities there. Since the outbreak of the war, World Jewish Relief has played a vital role in supporting those children, helping to evacuate and relocate them to safety, and ensuring they continue to receive care and protection in the midst of conflict. 

The parallels between past and present are impossible to ignore. Families facing sudden upheaval. People needing safety. And World Jewish Relief continue their long-standing commitment to helping people rebuild their lives.  

I am running the London Marathon to honour my great-grandmother’s memory and also to honour World Jewish Relief’s work. They did not just save Sassy’s life, they saved generations. And they are still doing the same today. 

Running 26.2 miles is a small act compared to the courage of a 13-year-old girl arriving alone in a new country - or the life-saving work World Jewish Relief continues to do. But it is my way of saying thank you, and of helping ensure that when the next life needs saving, World Jewish Relief will be able to continue their work.