These days, Canadian elementary students learn about Canadian icon Terry Fox – a legacy whose historical fight against cancer and Marathon of Hope triggered fundraising for cancer research across Canada and around the world – in school.
Doug Brewer, co-chair of the annual South Surrey and White Rock Terry Fox Run, remembers being in school – post-secondary at the University of British Columbia – when Terry Fox was still alive.
"I was going to UBC at the time... Terry was couple years younger. I remember shooting around a basketball with him and Rick Hansen in the UBC memorial gym back in the day when we were 20 years old," Brewer recalled.
Plenty of fundraisers showed up at the South Surrey Athletic Park event Sunday morning (Sept. 15), along with an estimated 3.6 million Canadians who participate in the annual effort each year in their community or school.
"He's a true Canadian hero, and cancer is an enemy that every family fights – if you haven't got it in your family, you've got a friend or some other relative or know someone (who has experienced it)," Brewer said.
"Cancer can be beaten... we've made tremendous strides in the past several years, not in small part due to Terry's fundraising efforts."
Dotted throughout the crowd of fundraisers were participants wearing red shirts, marking them as cancer survivors, including Wayne Guthrie.
Flanked by friends Bryson Stoelers, Kyle Bailey and a very friendly, four-legged Buck, Guthrie said he and his wife have both survived cancer.
"We have lots of reasons to be here and these guys are good friends of mine who I convinced to come," Guthrie said.
"The research that is funded by things like this created the tools that gave us the early detection that saved our lives, so the more we can do this, the more people we can save."
Brewer was impressed with the turnout and was happy to see so many children participating with their families.
"It's a great family event all about fundraising and keeping Terry's legacy alive in the community, and we've done that here for 44 years," he noted.
To date, more than $850 million has been raised for cancer research in Terry Fox's name, according to the foundation website.
Visit run.terryfox.ca for more information or to get involved in next year's event.
