Participants set out on Sunday’s Terry Fox Run 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 photo)
Of the 39 people who registered for this year’s Terry Fox Run at the Sonora Community Centre, some were fit walkers and runners.
A contingent of 21 members of the Osoyoos Coyotes turned out, all in top shape. All of them were born long after Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope and the first Terry Fox Run in 1981 after the runner with a prosthetic leg died of cancer.
Others, like Susan Evans, came more out of a sense of dedication to Fox’s legacy and his cause to raise dollars for cancer research.
Evans, who attended Sunday’s event with her husband Peter, was walking with a cane and is currently awaiting a replacement hip.
Walking isn’t comfortable for her and for someone who loves to walk, she finds it frustrating.
But Evans and her husband have participated in every Terry Fox Run since 1981 and they weren’t about to miss this one. They both wore T-shirts celebrating Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope.
“We went as far as we could,” she said after Sunday’s run, adding she was happy with how they did and that they could participate.
The couple has also made a point of visiting Terry Fox memorials across Canada, including the monument near Thunder Bay on the Trans-Canada Highway where Fox abandoned his run in early September, 1980 after his cancer returned and spread to his lungs. They also visited the one in Vancouver.
Last summer the couple made it to the monument at mile zero of Fox’s journey in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The visit brought many tears to her eyes.
Evans admits she’s passionate about the cause behind the Terry Fox Run.
“A lot of friends and relatives have been affected by cancer,” she said. “It’s something that touches everybody. There are not too many people that you meet that don’t have an aunt or somebody, a sister or brother, who has been touched by cancer.”
Evans said her own sister died of cancer. She was also touched when the daughter of a good friend, a young mother of two children, died of breast cancer.
Susan and Peter Evans have lived the last 16 years in Osoyoos and have participated in every local Terry Fox Run except for one when they were in Vancouver and did it there instead.
For many years they did the run in Dawson Creek where they lived previously and where Peter had a career in education.
One year in the early 1990s they even did the run in Hawaii – the Terry Fox Run is marked in other countries around the world.
Sunday’s run took place in sunny weather and the course ran along Pioneer Walkway and down Lakeshore Drive. Participants could turn around and do one-kilometre, two-kilometre, five-kilometre or 10-kilometre walks or runs.
“It was beautiful weather,” said organizer Sarah Dynneson, community services program supervisor with the Town of Osoyoos. “It was a good event. We were quite happy with the turnout and the way things ran. We had quite a few people from out of town participating and we had a couple of comments that it was the nicest route they’ve ever been on for a Terry Fox Run.”
Dynneson said she’s grateful to all the participants who turned out and helped to raise $510.
She also thanked local Realtor Allan Taylor, who sponsored an ad for the event in the Osoyoos Times.
Evans believes Terry Fox was a hero for young people to look up to.
“I think he was a very, very courageous, totally gutsy, just wonderful human being,” she said. “He knew he had that cancer and he went on as far as he could. He went on with that prosthesis rubbing against him. I just think he was absolutely tremendous and fabulous and so courageous.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Susan Evans (left) chats with Councillor Sue McKortoff as the two set out on Sunday’s Terry Fox Run. Evans has participated in the event every year since it was launched in 1981. This year she is waiting for a hip replacement, but she still made it out to support the Terry Fox Foundation and cancer research. (Richard McGuire photo)
Peter Evans is a longtime supporter of the Terry Fox Run and he has the t-shirt to show it. He and his wife Susan were among those participating in Sunday’s event from the Sonora Community Centre. (Richard McGuire photo)
