250 students at Art Smith Aviation Academy took to the pathways on Monday to continue a tradition 41 years in the making. The 4 Wing school hosted its’ Terry Fox Walk with students taking the time to complete a trek around the neighbourhood and learn more about Fox and his legacy of cancer research.
It’s been 41 years since Fox’s journey on the Marathon of Hope ended near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Fox had run some 5,300 kilometres when cancer returned in his lungs and forced him to stop.
Principal Andrea Farrell says the students got an opportunity to hear about Fox’s story and why it’s important to continue what he started.
“All the classes shared something today about Terry Fox and why we were going out; Especially for the little ones, for some of them, it’s their first (Terry Fox Walk). Why is it special? Who was Terry Fox?. The motto for the walk this year was ‘Be Like Terry’, so we tried to say ‘How can we teach them to be like Terry?’ ”
Fox had lost his leg to osteogenic sarcoma at the age of 18 and had underwent around 16 months of treatment before undertaking his 1980 run across the country. He’s estimated to have run around 42 kilometres a day.
Grade 1 student Nora Sales says she learned about Fox and what made his journey special.
“He was trying to get from one part of Canada to another part of it. He had dipped one foot into one (ocean) and he wanted to go to the other side and do it there.”
Sales says she also learned about what Fox’s legacy and donations to various runs and walks means for people fighting cancer.
“They want to make medicine to try and get rid of cancer.”
The Terry Fox Foundation says in the years since the original Marathon of Hope, around $850 million has been raised to support cancer research.
