The annual Terry Fox Run returns today with an event kicking off at 11 a.m. in Taylor.
There is no cost for families to join — just show up to the Lone Wolf golf course and be ready to run or walk around the trails.
“It’s not a race per se just a time to get together and walk or run with people who have been touched by cancer,” says Tara Maddigan, “whether they’ve lost someone or they themselves are suffering from some form of cancer, or just family and friends that want to support the cause and the people touched by cancer.”
Fox is celebrated across the nation for raising awareness and dollars for cancer research, and a donation table will be set up, as will a water station, at today's event.
Fox was a distance runner and played basketball in high school and university before he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and had his right leg amputated 1977.
Three years later, he would make history when he attempted to run across Canada, setting out from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in April 1980. After 143 days he had made it to Thunder Bay, Ontario, where he was forced to end his Marathon of Hope. The cancer had spread to his lungs.
Fox had run the equivalent of a marathon a day, which amounted to 5,373 kilometres.
He died on June 28, 1981, at age 22, but his legacy lives on.
The first annual Terry Fox Run was held in September 1981, now the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research, with more than $850 million raised.
For more information on the Terry Fox Foundation, and this year's local event, click here.
