This Sunday morning rain or shine, North Vancouver’s Inter River Park will play host to a reunion of a special kind of family that had been coming together each September for over four decades – until it could not for the past two years due to COVID.
This family’s link is deeper than bloodlines… It’s the connection of knowing from an instant of eye contact that you and the stranger over there warming up for a run share something that fills both your hearts. It’s the feeling that somehow you’ve all been called there to honour and celebrate something profoundly good and inspiring.
For me, that’s always been the magic of the moments as the clock ticks down to the start of a Terry Fox Run.
Terry wasn’t doing his audacious run 42 years ago because he wanted to be famous. He ran the equivalent of a daily marathon for 143 straight days across Canada because he wanted to fund a cure for all cancers.
By now, just about every Canadian school child knows that on September 1st, 1980, Terry was forced to end his Marathon of Hope after learning his cancer had returned. Even though his run was over, he never quit on his dream. Four decades later, neither have those who support and participate what is now a world-wide effort that has raised in excess of $800 million for cancer research.
Many of those I’ve met at Terry Fox Runs over the years are there for very personal reasons. That’s certainly the case for our family. When our grandson was two, he was diagnosed with a Stage 4 neuroblastoma and a dark prognosis. The next two years were a blur.
But this Sunday – now a thriving eight-year old – our grandson will be running in Terry’s footsteps. He’ll be there because he was privileged to receive leading-edge cancer treatments that had not even been imagined when Terry did his run… treatments that Terry’s legacy helped fund.
We hope you’ll consider coming out and supporting this community effort – and becoming a member of this unique family of strangers.
You can register on-site beginning at 9:00 a.m. : Inter River Park, 1301 Lillooet Road, North Vancouver
You can also register or make a donation: https://run.terryfox.ca/2998
Hope to see you Sunday!
Kevin and Ronnaug Evans coordinate the North Vancouver Terry Fox Run alongside the Rotary Club of North Vancouver.
