Kitimatians continue to keep the spirit of Terry Fox alive as another year of the community Terry Fox Run wraps up.
On Sept. 16 people gathered at the Riverlodge to sign up to pledge money to cancer research, then they took off on their walk (or run) that would take them around the Kildala area.
In all 25 people attended the event, raising $1,195.
Christine Doherty is this year’s new coordinator for the event, taking over from Anne Berrisford who had headed the event for numerous years prior.
Doherty is thankful to the community for contributing to such a great run.
She also notes that next year’s event is already scheduled for Sept. 15, 2013.
Ian Closs and his wife Eileen will certainly have that date circled on their calendar already. The couple have been participating in Terry Fox Runs since they began in 1981.
Ian explained to the Sentinel what makes Fox such an inspiring person as he flipped through several scrapbook albums of newspaper clippings of stories relating to Terry Fox and the annual marathons.
Ian himself was an avid runner back in the time the Marathons of Hope began, and was recovering from an arm injury when he did his first one.
He said he had been feeling low after his injury but was inspired seeing Fox doing his run.
“From then on I stopped feeling sorry for myself,” he said.
Admiration of Fox ran in the family. Ian said he remembers an exchange between his father and himself when his father, watching Terry Fox on television, said “There’s a real hero.”
The wording caught Ian off guard.
“My father was a career soldier...I never heard him say that kind of thing.”
Ian’s admiration of Fox remains and will continue to do the Terry Fox Runs as long as he’s able.
“I admired the man so this is my way of paying back,” he said.