Athletes of all abilities will run for an important cause Sunday.
Tecumseh hosts Essex County's only sanctioned Terry Fox Run at Green Acres Optimist Park. It's one of hundreds of similar runs being held all over the country to raise money for cancer research, named after a Canadian hero.
Terry Fox was a high school athlete from British Columbia who lost a leg to a rare form of cancer. He learned to walk and eventually run again using an artificial leg. When he saw what little funding went to cancer research at the time, he began preparing for the Marathon of Hope.
He began his run in April 1980 after symbolically dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean. He continued running until he had to stop 18 miles out of Thunder Bay, Ont. in September due to his cancer returning and spreading to his lungs. He returned to BC for treatment and declined all offers to complete the run for him, saying he wanted to finish it when he got well. When he died in June 1981 at age 22, his funeral was broadcast live on national television.
Since his death, Terry Fox Runs have been organized in communities across Canada, and even some around the world, raising millions of dollars each year for cancer research.
Runners, walkers and bicyclists of all ages are encouraged to participate in the non-competitive event in Tecumseh, along with people using wheelchairs, strollers and rollerblades. There are opportunities to run a two-kilometre course, a 5k and a 10k. The course begins and ends at Green Acres Optimist Park and winds through the streets of St. Clair Beach and the area surrounding Beach Grove Golf and Country Club.
Registration begins at 8am with whatever donation a participant is willing to donate. The run begins at 9am. A free barbeque follows the run with kids' activities and live music planned.
Participants are asked to being a refillable water bottle, and water stations will be provided along the course along with bottled water.
The town of Tecumseh says Edgewater Blvd, St. Mark's Rd, and portions of Riverside Dr E, Pentilly Rd, Tecumseh Rd E and Arlington Blvd will be closed from 8am to noon with controlled access being granted to affected areas by the Ontario Provincial Police and event volunteers. For the complete course and road closures, click here.
