Everyone is welcome to participate in a Terry Fox Run, regardless of age, athletic ability or socio-economic standing. While the run does not have an entry fee or minimum donation, all participants are asked to fundraise or make a donation. You can raise funds online, use a pledge sheet or make a donation at the run site. Whatever your choice, know that every dollar counts.
Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Fox was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.
While in hospital, Fox was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope. After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 – with little fanfare.
Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran close to 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario. However, on Sept. 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Fox was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Fox passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.
The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.
To date, more than $750 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Fox’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.
Let’s all try to help to make this a great year for contributions from the Emery Village area.
Check out the Terry Fox website at: www.terryfox.org
And get running.