Participants at last year’s Terry Fox Run set out from the Sonora Community Centre. Their numbers were bolstered by a large contingent of Osoyoos Coyotes. The walk was held across Canada to raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation, which funds cancer research. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Almost 35 years after his death, Terry Fox remains a Canadian icon and hero and that’s why millions of Canadians continue to participate in the annual fundraiser that has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.
The 2015 Terry Fox Run will take place across Canada – and around the world – on Sunday, Sept. 20. Here in Osoyoos, the event will once again take place starting and ending at the Sonora Community Centre. Registration will take place at 8:30 Sunday morning, with the actual walk beginning at 9 a.m.
Fox, who was born in Winnipeg and raised in Port Coquitlam, B.C., was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.
Fox’s Marathon of Hope was a journey that Canadians never forgot. He ran close to 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day and completed 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age 22. Fox’s legacy was just beginning. To date, over $650 million has been raised worldwide through the annual Terry Fox Run.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
