Keith Walker, wearing a "Dear Terry" shirt, is the chair of the organizing committee for the 2023 Terry Fox Run. (Photo Courtesy Chris Brown)

By Chris Brown

Terry Fox Run returning to Medicine Hat this year

May 29, 2023 | 1:18 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – For the first time since 2019 Hatters will gather in September to honour one of the most beloved Canadians.

The Terry Fox Run will return to Medicine Hat on Sept. 17 on the Sunrise Rotary Trail that loops around Medicine Hat College. The run was held every year until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to go virtual. The Medicine Hat Kinette Club organized the run for most of the past 42 years but didn’t have enough members to take it on last year.

Keith Walker of the Sunrise Rotary Club says Fox is an amazing story and when he approached members about bringing the run back they quickly formed a committee to do just that.

“Terry Fox has been a hero of mine for over 40 years and I’m so impressed that there’s so many run across Canada and I’ve heard there over 30 countries that run Terry Fox. And so not to have it in Medicine Hat concerned me,” the organizing committee chair says.

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“Really it was because Terry Fox was such a great person and he encouraged people to participate. I like that it’s not a competitive run it’s just a fun run, family run. Just do 3K or whatever amount you want. You can walk, you can run you can roller skate. I just like that whole idea that it’s fun event encouraging people to get out there and participate.”

Walker says Fox is an amazing story, as is how he came up with the idea for the Marathon of Hope in the hospital.

“He had bone cancer, lost his leg to the cancer and was so concerned with other people that were suffering in the hospital,” Walker says.

Fox’s goal was to raise $1 for every Canadian toward cancer research. He ran a marathon a day for 143 days in 1980 on his Marathon of Hope, forced to stop in Thunder Bay, Ont. when cancer was found in his lungs. The goal was met in February 1981, four months before Fox passed away on June 28.

Registration is open now and people are encouraged to start fundraising early. A new “Dear Terry” shirt, made famous by Canadian celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Catherine O’Hara, is part of the 2023 Terry Fox Collection. All proceeds will go to cancer research.