VIDEO: Terry Fox Run shirts on display at the Esplanade leading up to annual run in Medicine Hat

“This is the 45th anniversary of the Terry Fox run. 45 years ago, Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope run.” Walker said.

“Dan [Reynish] has collected shirts through those years and we have them on display at the Esplanade. A nice colorful display. Encourage people to come down and have a look at that and then come out to the run,” he added.

“We’re going to take them down the day before the run and put them up on display at the run. And we did that last year. Thanks to Dan for donating. We’re going to have them on display coming for the next whatever years we run the Terry Fox run.”

Reynish said the shirts had been sitting in boxes in his apartment for years.

“They’ve been in drawers and dressers, and I just kept looking at them because I buy two shirts every year, one to keep and one to wear. And I usually wear the shirt as I’m wearing this year’s shirt. There’s another one at home. And I just had no idea what to do with them,” Reynish said.

“Then I was thinking one time after Keith was on CHAT TV, I thought, well, would they be interested in having them and use them to promote the run before the run,” he added.

“Last year, we didn’t get them to them in time. So they just put them up at the run and people were really enjoying looking at them. But this year, they’re here on display at the Esplanade.”

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Reynish said he lost a friend at the age of 18 to cancer.

“We’ve all been touched by cancer. And I’ve participated in every single Terry Fox run that there has been. I did my first one in Germany in 1981. And I’ll do my latest one in Medicine Hat this year,” Reynish said.

“I feel very connected to it. I was the provincial director of the Saskatchewan office for a year,” he added.

“Every year I do the run. I do it for friends. I do it for the memory of those people that aren’t here. And I do it for those people that can’t do it. But I mostly do it for Terry. Terry never got to finish the run. Terry only got to Thunder Bay.”

Reynish said that Fox is an idol of his.

“Every day that I think I can’t do something, I push myself because Terry pushed himself,” Reynish said.

“I feel very connected to the Terry Fox run and very connected to the Fox family.”

Walker said he thinks almost everybody has some impact with cancer.

“Which is why I really support this. But I’ve had family members, both my parents died of cancer. I’ve had siblings with cancer, other friends have had cancer. So it’s personal,” Walker said.

“And as Terry said, we want to finish this. We want to be able to do as much research with cancer and stop this from happening,” he added.

“It makes me emotional to talk about it. Just Terry Fox is my hero. And to be able to bring this to Medicine Hat has been a great thing in my life. And I’m really happy that people support it. And it continues across Canada and around the world. Such a legacy from Terry Fox.”

Walker said the route will be along the Sunrise Rotary Trail.

“Which is a really easy three kilometer trail with no hills. It’s a nice, beautiful place around the college,” Walker said.

“Registration starts about 9:30 a.m. The run will start at 10:30 a.m. Encourage people to register online. Just either google Terry Fox Run or go to terryfox.org and just type in Medicine Hat and then it’s easy to register,” he added.

“We encourage people to register as teams. That makes it a lot more fun. You can compete against other teams. You can work together to raise funds.”

Although having a team isn’t necessary to participate.

“If you don’t have a team, just register online or come that day and register. We will have friendly people there to take registration,” Walker said

“There’s some treats, music, some very few speeches and it’s a really fun time. Takes about half an hour.”

Sunrise Rotary took over the organizing of the run two years ago.

“This is our third year. When we took over, it hadn’t run for a year and had been on sort of sabbatical during the COVID. So we were kind of nervous about how it would be and we had a wonderful success,” Walker said.

“Community came behind us and we more than doubled the highest they’d ever raised in the previous 43 years. Last year we even made more than that, we had $24,000 and really good community support,” he added.

“Over about 200 people came out that day. We were really pleased with the support. And it’s great to have the Sunrise Rotary and the Rotary Ignite Clubs are involved.”

by Jesse Gill

VIDEO: Terry Fox Run shirts on display at the Esplanade leading up to annual run in Medicine Hat

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