Terry Fox events coming up

Sept. 17 is community run day, 37th year for cancer research fundraiser

Tri-county communities are among those getting ready to host the Terry Fox Run Sunday, Sept. 17.

Terry Fox events are planned for Digby, Clare, Weymouth, Tusket, Woods Harbour and Barrington Passage/Clark’s Harbour.

The events offer various distances – the most common being five kilometres – and start times vary too.

Fifty-six communities and more than 330 schools across Nova Scotia are holding Terry Fox events this year, said Barbara Pate, provincial director for the Terry Fox Foundation in Nova Scotia.

While Sept. 17 is the designated day for communities to hold their Terry Fox events, Sept. 28 has been set as the day for school events, although some schools may choose a different date to hold their activities, Pate said.

In Nova Scotia last year, about $650,000 was raised for cancer research through the Terry Fox Foundation.

“Research is being done right here at Dalhousie University,” Pate said, “and studies are being done on a variety of types of cancers, including lymphoid, breast, prostate, colorectal, lung and brain.”

Terry Fox became a national hero in 1980 when he attempted to run across Canada on an artificial leg to raise money for cancer re- search. Heading from east to west, he made it as far as the Thunder Bay area, where he stopped after cancer (the disease that had cost him his right leg a few years earlier) spread to his lungs. He died in 1981, a month shy of his 23rd birthday.

“Support for the Terry Fox Run remains strong 37 years after his Marathon of Hope,” Pate said.

More than $750 million has been raised for cancer research through the annual fundraising runs held in his memory. Terry Fox events are held around the world.