It’s time to put on those running shoes to raise money for cancer research because the Thorold Terry Fox Run is taking place once again on Sunday, September 18.
“It’s going to be our second actual live run since COVID,” says organizer Cindy Dickson, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “We did one last year. It was great to be back. I was really happy with the turnout but it was not what it used to be. My hope is now that all the restrictions have been taken away that everybody that used to come comes back.”
This is the third year that Dickson is organizing the event.
“My first year taking over it was all virtual so it was really hard for me,” says Dickson. “I was really excited to take over for Mike Charron [Former organizer and founder of the Thorold chapter of the Terry Fox Run] and then there was really nothing, so it was all on computer. It was okay, we didn’t have a choice but it’s not the same as being in person.”
The Terry Fox Run is personal for Dickson as she almost lost her daughter Candace to acute leukemia eight years ago.
“I was probably 12 hours away from losing my daughter when she was 23 years old,” Dickson says. “It got so far so fast that she was literally shutting down. The people at Juravinski [Hospital] literally took ahold of her and said: ‘No, we do this transplant thing. She’s going to be fine, she’s going be cured.’“
The story of her daughter exemplifies why the Terry Fox Run is still so important, according to Dickson
“There is just so many people out there that survived cancer in the last 30 years,” Dickson says. “It’s because of all this research that they’re doing and these new things that they’re finding. People wouldn’t be living. They just wouldn’t be surviving cancer. The research is what makes the advances and then gets people living.”
Taking part in the Terry Fox Run has turned into somewhat of a tradition for the mother-daughter duo.
“[Candace] has always been there in her survivor coloured shirt representing what it’s all about,” says Dickson.
The Thorold Terry Fox Run will take place on Sunday, September 18. The run will take off from the Thorold Community Credit Union at 10 a.m. Registration opens at 9 a.m. To donate money, head over to the website.
