The Terry Fox Run in progress yesterday. PICTURE: Nasser T.K.
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
About 800 Qatar residents of different nationalities and age groups walked, jumped, pedalled or roller skated through a nearly 2km route around the College of North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q) in Duhail yesterday, turning the Qatar leg of the Terry Fox Run, an annual non-competitive charity event, into a major success.
The event is held around the world in commemoration of the late Canadian cancer activist Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope.
Fred, elder brother of Terry, had flown into Qatar to launch this year's event, in the presence of Canadian ambassador Andre Dubois. Both of them joined the participants and completed a lap.
Fred and the envoy expressed happiness at the enthusiasm shown by the participants to associate with such a humanitarian event.
Some of the organisers told Gulf Times they were pleased with the response that this year's event generated among Qatar residents. It was the 11th successive year that the event was being held in Qatar, recalled John Little, the co-ordinator of Friday's event.
The CNA-Q instructor said the Terry Fox Run attracted anywhere between 700 and 800 participants, notwithstanding the somewhat adverse weather conditions in the afternoon.
"It was remarkable such a large number of participants turned up despite the strong and dusty winds," he said. Inquiries found many Qatar residents supported the charity online while others made contributions directly to the organisers.
The co-ordinator recalled that on a few occasions earlier the event attracted close to about 2,000 participants. While some participants struggled to complete one round on Friday, there were others who completed the route even four times. A few participants were above 70.
"Participation in such a noble mission is more significant than completing the distance," said Little. The event, as elsewhere in the world, was held in Qatar to raise money for various cancer researches the world over.
The event, sources said, had its beginning in the early 1980s. Isadore Sharp had contacted Terry Fox while he was undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital and expressed his wish to hold an annual run in Terry's name to raise funds for cancer research. Sharp's son had lost his life to cancer in 1979.
Terry Fox, born in 1958, was diagnosed with a malignant tumour at the age of 19 and his right leg was amputated 15cm above the knee. After this Terry began training for his Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research and awareness. His goal was to raise $1 for every Canadian (approximately $24mn in 1980).
After dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in 1980, Terry began his run. He ran an average of 42km a day through six provinces in Canada. Terry stopped his run when the disease spread to his lungs.
Terry lost his battle with cancer at the age of 23 on August 29, 1981. He was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
In May this year, the Terry Fox Foundation announced that more than $650mn had been raised worldwide to support cancer research in Terry’s name.
