Catching Up to Terry Fox

Terry Fox organizer
Lilly Ing, Terry Fox Run organizer in Markham, Sept. 15, 2019. Abirame Shanthkumar/Toronto Observer

The Markham-Unionville fundraiser gets off to a fresh start.

Hundreds of runners and their families gathered at Main Street and Library Lane in Unionville Sunday,  to immortalize the legacy of Terry Fox.

The annual run is held to fundraise and raise awareness about cancer. Participants came from diverse backgrounds.

Paavni Sharma, 12, participated to increase awareness about cancer research.

“I want to keep Terry’s memory alive. He ran for others, so I want to do that, too,” she said, adding that her parents motivated her to run, and encouraged her to be active. “I came here on my own free will, because I wanted to come.”

Her goal is to run for 1 mile without stopping.

The fundraising event started with a symphony performance waking up the crowd under cloudy skies. Runners enjoyed taking the route through the forest.

Terry Fox ended his run on Sept. 6, 1980, near Thunder Bay, when he had to be flown back to British Columbia for cancer treatment. A telethon was created that year by the people that knew Terry well, and the run has been continued annually ever since.

The director of the Markham-Unionville run, Lilly Ing, is a practising pharmacist. She is organizing the event because it is a part of her family’s tradition to participate in it every year, beginning in 1993.

Her fundraising goal is to raise at least 70 or 80 thousand dollars over the year. The goal of this year’s run is also “to raise awareness, to get families to come out, to participate, and to carry on Terry’s legacy.”

Ing describes awareness as “knowing who Terry Fox is, knowing the importance of the run, and knowing what the cancer foundation does.”

     

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Posted: Sep 15 2019 1:24 pm
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