Taber Terry Fox Run sprints into 35th year

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Taber’s annual Terry Fox Run is returning for a 35th year on Sept. 14. Over the years, Taber runners have raised $314,715.67 and made their mark on cancer research. Canadian hero Terry Fox asked his fellow countrymen to continue to support his Marathon of Hope as he neared the end of his road, and if there’s an afterlife, he’s likely beaming from beyond.

 Fox was born in 1958 and though his life was cut short, it made a profound impact on the nation. His spirit was nothing short of inspirational. He lost a leg to osteogenic sarcoma at the age of 18, underwent 16 months of treatment, and was moved by the suffering he witnessed in the cancer wards. So he set out on a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research in a Marathon of Hope that would create change and fund a cure for all cancers.

 On April 12, 1980, Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean off of Newfoundland and then began running southwest, driven to complete a cross-country run that would culminate with a splash in the Pacific. It was an astonishing ambition, given the sheer size of the country’s land mass.

 According to terryfox.org, he ran close to 42 kilometres a day down through Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. “He ran through snow, rain, wind, heat, humidity. He stopped in more than 400 towns, schools, and cities to talk about why he was running. He started at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, and often did not finish his last mile until 7 p.m. at night,” the site said.

 Only one thing could have stopped Fox from reaching the Pacific Ocean, and it did; the cancer returned, this time in his lungs. On Sept. 1, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, he was forced to stop short just outside of Thunder Bay, Ont. Fox died on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22, but his legacy lives on. To date, over $850 million has been raised for cancer research in his name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

 Colleen Pack, a member of Taber’s organizing committee for the run, said this year’s event on Sept. 14 begins at the community centre with registration from 8 to 9 a.m., when the run starts. Families, teams, and individuals can register for free with their name and then walk, run, or bike the five kilometre loop. Pledge sheets are available on site or on the terryfox.org website, where one-time or monthly donations are accepted. Runners can collect donations in advance or simply show up with their own donation in hand.

 Pack described her own experience with the Terry Fox Foundation. “When I was a child from Innisfail, my dad was part of the committee there. My grandpa passed away from cancer, and we’ve had multiple members of our family with different types of cancer, as it is with many people. My family has been involved for a long time. It’s just a good organization. Most of the money goes back to cancer research, there’s not a lot of wasted money. It’s about keeping Terry’s dream alive.”

 Pack provided a list of stats for the event since its inception in Taber. In its first year, 1989, the run pulled in $3, as in three dollars. After that donations were often in the thousands until 2007, peaking at over $7,200 in 2001 and 2002. Then in 2008, the numbers exploded. In that year and the following one, the run netted roughly $36,000 each year and held on between $16,000 and $20,000 until 2014. The numbers dropped to just under $6,500 during two years

of virtual COVID runs, but have bounced back nicely since then. Between 2014 and now, somewhere between 50 and 100 runners participated each year. A new Terry Fox quilt crafted by the local Cotton Pickers club is on display at the public library and an earlier original quilt will be shipped to a Canadian museum as part of its Fox exhibit.

Pack wished to spotlight prostate cancer before this year’s run as the most common cancer affecting Canadian men, with 25,900 diagnosed cases last year. While medical science has advanced the treatment of the disease, the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) says it’s difficult for patients to access the best possible care.

 “We’re not offering state-of-the-art care for these patients due to a lack of resources,” said Dr. Lucas Mendez, an assistant professor at Western University and a radiation oncologist at London Health Sciences Centre. Mendez will receive funding to create an accessible and effective method of delivering high doses of radiation therapy directly to the main cancerous area in the prostate, a site known as the dominant index lesion. Funding from the TFRI will support the doctor in his work.

 Nearly two in five people in Canada will develop cancer during their lifetime and about one out of four Canadians are expected to die from cancer. The facts are frightening, but today, data predicts the five-year net survival rate for all cancers to be 64 per cent. In the 1940s, the survival rate was only about 25 per cent.

 Over 650 Canadian communities still honour Fox by hosting the run each year. The TFRI posted an infographic that showed it had invested $12.8 million in 2022-23 in conjunction with 96 institutions. In that fiscal year, 260 researchers participated in 36 projects. The investment dollars decreased by almost half of the 2019-20 total of $21.8 million once the pandemic hit, and like so many other enterprises is still rebounding.

 Both the Terry Fox Foundation and Research Institute are tremendous resources for information on the fight against the insidious disease that impacts many. To participate, just lace up your Reeboks for a Saturday stroll. Running is optional.