Terry Fox events to be held in tri-counties
Sept. 16 is Terry Fox Run day for communities; Sept. 27 is date for school events
Nearly four decades after his Marathon of Hope, Terry Fox remains a hero and an inspiration to Canadians, many of whom will take part in Terry Fox events this month.
Festivities will also be held in the tri-county region, where a halfdozen events in Fox’s memory are planned for Sunday, Sept. 16 in Shelburne, Yarmouth and Digby counties.
Event locations for this date include Digby, Weymouth, Clare, Tusket, Woods Harbour and Barrington Passage/Clark’s Harbour.
A separate day is set aside each year for schools to hold their own Terry Fox runs and this year’s school date is Thursday, Sept. 27.
Terry Fox events in Nova Scotia raised $650,000 last year, according to the Terry Fox Foundation’s Nova Scotia office in Halifax.
“Residents of communities across the province in 45 locations, and students in more than 340 schools, were once again generous to a fault in their participation and fundraising for cancer research,” said Barbara Pate, provincial director for the Terry Fox Foundation in Nova Scotia. “People are still really engaged in the cause and continue to recognize the need to support research in a wide variety of cancers.”
Terry Fox, a Winnipeg native, was 18 years old when, in 1977, he discovered he had a malignant tumour in his right leg. The leg was amputated 15 centimetres above the knee.
A couple of years later Fox, now with an artificial leg, began training for his Marathon of Hope, an effort to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
He began his journey in April 1980 in St. John’s and, over the next few months, Fox basically ran a marathon a day, but he had to stop Sept. 1 outside Thunder Bay after cancer had spread to his lungs.
Fox died less than a year later, on June 28, 1981, a month shy of his 23rd birthday.
The following is a look at Terry Fox events in the tri-counties scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16:
• Digby, starts at noon at Heritage Centre, Water Street. Contact person: Cara Sunderland activeliving. darc@bellaliant.com
• Weymouth, starts noon, Weymouth Medical Centre. Contact: Dean Jones deanjones9@hotmail. com
• Clare, starts at 11 a.m., Centre sportif, campus of Université SainteAnne. Contact: Marc-Alexandre Lagacy marcalexandre.lagacy@ usainteanne.ca
• Tusket, starts at 10:30 a.m., across from Ste-Anne-du-Ruisseau church. Contact: Adam Randall adam@eastroofing.com
• Woods Harbour, starts at 12:30 p.m., Woods Harbour baseball field. Contact: Gail Goreham gail.goreham@tcrsb.ca
• Barrington Pasage/Clark’s Harbour, starts at noon, Barrington library. Contact: Anna Kenney akenney@barringtonmunicipality.com