FOR THE KIDS

Sunday’s Sporting Life 10K raises money for Camp Ooch, for families touched by childhood cancer,

Before Yatri Shah’s son Shiven died of brain cancer in 2015, he spent two happy weeks at Camp Oochigeas, a camp for kids affected by cancer.

On Sunday, Shah will be running in the annual Sporting Life 10K along with almost 20 family members and friends to raise money for the camp, and to help other children like her son.

Camp Oochigeas, known affectionately as Camp Ooch, helps hundreds of families each year through camp programs in pediatric hospitals, city day camps and an overnight camp in Muskoka.

“The cause for us — I think there can be nothing better because Camp Ooch gives that smile and these kids they just need to be smiling all the time,” Shah said.

“When (Shiven) went to camp, even though he had his stroller there and everything, he was walking everywhere, he was a fun person. He just wanted to have fun,” she recalled.

The Sporting Life 10K has been supporting the Camp Ooch since 2000.

Over the years, it’s sent thousands of kids to camp and has raised more than $15 million.

“Everyone has been touched by cancer,” said Jean-Paul Corbeil, the advertising and marketing director at Sporting Life, in a news release.

“We are privileged to provide an opportunity for the people of Toronto to come together to give these amazing kids the chance to, as Ooch says, be who they are, not what they have; to have fun, make friends, to ‘just be kids!’ ”

The run, which is billed as Canada’s easiest 10-kilometre run, and one of the fastest anywhere, begins at the Sporting Life store at 2665 Yonge St. and heads southwest towards the lake.

This year will be Shah’s second time running it.

Last year, her group raised $5,000. At that time, Shah remembers thinking, “Instead of thinking about how sad I am, let’s all of us try to do something. We can channel all this negative energy into something positive and it really motivated us.”

The training was hard, but she said everyone’s positivity motivated her on the day of the run.

“That just keeps us going,” she said, “That the more kids we can send, or just being able to remember (Shiven’s) happy memories while being able to do something positive, for us is worth it.”