Cochrane's 42nd annual Terry Fox Run returning to in-person event this Sunday

Cochrane runners will pound the pavement for a good cause during the 42nd Terry Fox Run this Sunday.

After two pandemic-impacted years, the annual charity run will see a return to a traditional in-person event and mark a milestone to celebrate the legacy of the eponymous Canadian hero.

The local run will take place at Mitford Park with registration opening at 9 a.m. Participants can either follow the two- or five-kilometre routes. It doesn’t matter if the individual is a runner, walker, or wheeler, as anyone is welcome to participate in the event.

The Terry Fox Run is an event to remember the Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist of the same name, who raised millions of dollars to support cancer research through his "Marathon of Hope" in 1980. After having his leg amputated following a cancer diagnosis, Fox vowed to run on one leg across all of Canada, to raise awareness of and funds for cancer research.

The Simon Fraser University student ran the equivalent of a marathon each day, making it all the way from St. John's, Nfld. to Thunder Bay, Ont. before he was forced to cut the cross-country run short, as his cancer had returned.

He ultimately died in 1981, a month before his 23rd birthday, but his legacy lives on in the form of annual charity runs held each September across Canada.

This year is the 42nd anniversary of Fox’s Marathon of Hope, which is fitting because it commemorates the 42 kilometres Fox would run on a daily basis during his attempted journey across Canada.

Paul Cox, Cochrane resident and organizer for the Cochrane and Calgary Terry Fox Runs, believes this is an important milestone in his legacy and for the Terry Fox Foundation.

“Hopefully people will consider paying a special tribute this year,” he said.

Cox highlighted the dedication of one particular Cochrane resident who is a regular participant in every annual run.

“We have one lady, Judy Stewart, who’s been at each and every Terry Fox Run right from the beginning,” he said. “We deem her to be an E.T. which doesn’t mean extra terrestrial, but ‘every-timer.’ Her goal was $1,000 [and] she’s already surpassed it.”

He believes that it is never too late to become involved in Terry Fox Runs and invites people to be part of Fox's ongoing legacy.

“A lot of people at Terry Fox runs have been there in the past,” Cox said. “And it doesn’t matter whether you started in the 1980s, 2000s or [are starting] in 2022.

“Being part of the Terry Fox Run isn’t something people do. It becomes who they are as people and it’s all because of Terry Fox.”

Fox’s feats and his impact he has in Canada and worldwide are felt around the world. The best 10 words Cox heard about Fox were from Bill Vigars, his Ontario manager and publicist in 1980.

“He said ‘a little bit of Terry Fox lives in every Canadian,’ and I can’t think of a better way to say it than that,” Cox quoted.

For more information on the Cochrane Terry Fox Run or on how to donate, visit run.terryfox.ca/3175.