Terry Fox run for cancer route will be slightly different this year.

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

September 14, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It is going to be a packed weekend with all kinds of things to do.

The MoonGlade event takes over the Art Gallery of Burlington Friday night; the Amazing Bed Race will close down Brant Street for a part of Sunday and the Terry Fox run will take place the same day.

The Terry Fox run is the focus of this piece.

Terry Fox runners

Thousands take part of the Terry Fox Run for a Cancer Cure every year. Small changes in the route this year.

The route for the run is basically the same but shorter because of the rebuilding of Lakeshore road where it bends around the Joseph Brant Museum, the route had to be changed.

Instead of starting out on the western end of Lakeshore Road – the start will be at a location behind the Waterfront Hotel at the foot of Brant Street and works its way along the Naval Promenade of Spencer Smith Park to a point just east of the Brant Museum.

A detailed map of the route is expected later today.

The run will have a different emotional feel to it this year. Perched on a small rise of Spencer Smith Park is the monument to Terry Fox’s run through Burlington in 1980.

terry-fox-running-across-from-monument

Terry Fox running his Marathon of Hope in 1980 is shown at that point on Lakeshore Road that is exactly opposite where the monument to his achievement stands today.

Mark Mulholland  found a picture of Terry Fox running along Lakeshore Road in 1980 and posted it to a Facebook page. The picture was taken at a spot that is opposite where the monument to his remarkable achievement stands today.

For those who were around when Terry Fox made that heroic run across the country seeing the picture and knowing that he ran through our city leaves one feeling a little unsettled.

The Terry Fox run is a major event for hundreds of Burlingtonians who use the occasion to remember and reflect on those who have been lost to cancer and an occasion to raise additional funds for cancer research.

Fox monument with Brant Inn

The Terry Fox monument – steps away from the point at which he ran along Lakeshore Road 36 years ago.

Given what we know now about that disease today, we may not have lost Terry Fox 36  years ago.

Progress but at the same time we grieve the loss of a remarkably courageous young man who set out to make a difference. The expression on his face is painful to look at. But he was out there every day running with that sort of a step and a hop that he used to propel himself.

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