40th anniversary Terry Fox Run to be virtual

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope, with a theme of One Day. Your Way.

Joan King, organizer of the Niagara-on-the-Lake run, says it will be a virtual event, to be held Sunday, Sept. 20.

Runners, walkers, and cyclists, including families and children, are being encouraged to run, walk or ride through their neighbourhood, registering as individuals, families or a virtual team, and to start their fundraising efforts now.

King has always planned events leading up to the fun to increase fundraising efforts locally, including a comedy evening with Joe Pillitteri, a strong supporter of the Terry Fox run. As much as that will be missed, she’s working with him to come up with an alternative, she says.

She had been planning a small event at the Prince of Wales Hotel in July, as a way to recognize the 40th anniversary of the day Fox attended a celebration there during his run.

That won’t happen either, but she will be selling 40th anniversary T-shirts and looking for other ways to safely recognize the milestone.

On 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 20, Adidas launched a Terry Fox tribute collection that includes the same blue sneaker Fox wore throughout his attempt to run across Canada, a T-shirt, and other memorabilia, with 100 per cent of net proceeds going to The Terry Fox Foundation to support cancer research.

On Sept. 20, “anyone can join the run,” says King, who hopes the ability to run from home might attract more participants.

“Start your fundraising online — all the information is available. Cancer can’t wait for this to be over.”

For more information, visit https://terryfox.org/run/.