Run For A Cause - The Terry Fox Run 2007

The Terry Fox Run 2007 is near. It is an annual event for the last 15 years and, this year, will be held on 4 November 2007, 9 am @ The Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur. More details here. Check out last year's event here. Learn more about the Terry Fox Foundation.

Who is Terry Fox? Taken from the official website:

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada's west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.

While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.

After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada's Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.

However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.

The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.

To date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

T-shirts, food, drinks, etc. will be sold during this event in Malaysia and all proceeds will go to a local cancer research organization. This year, the proceeds will go to the Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation.

So do stop by if you have the time! I do not have the stamina to run, so a couple of friends and I walked last year. A bit shy to admit, but yeah, did just that. :P If all goes well, I shall be there this year as well. :D