The 40th Annual Terry Fox Run: Virtual Edition
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40 years ago, Terry Fox set out on his Marathon of Hope not knowing how Canadians would respond to his plea, “Somewhere the hurting must stop.” Canada answered that plea with Terry Fox Runs in hundreds of communities, thousands of schools, and with millions of supporters across Canada.
This year, the global pandemic has changed so much about our lives from how we work, whom we spend our time with, where we go. But it has not changed our desire to help others, to make a difference, to bring light into the dark, just like Terry did in 1980. The Marathon of Hope might be turning 40 years old but the message is timeless.
On Sunday September 20th, Canadians will show up again for Terry and for cancer research, not in person but in spirit, in neighbourhoods across Canada as they participate in the first-ever virtual “Terry Fox Run. One Day. Your Way.” There will be walkers, runners, bikers, and hikers; some will get up at 4:30am to honour Terry’s favourite time to run, while others will walk and Skype family in Europe to participate in a global effort.
In these uncertain times, the one certainty we have is that cancer is not waiting for COVID to be over. Important findings continue to be made, as seen when Terry Fox-funded scientists at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto mined the uncharted territory of the genome of a cancer cell and discovered gold: new protein targets for drug development against prostate cancer. Previously dismissed as “junk” DNA, noncoding regions were once thought to have little to offer for a cure against cancer. “We are exploring uncharted territory,” says Dr. Matthew Lupien.
