BONNYVILLE - Les Parsons remembers following Terry Fox’s Journey 44 years ago, and the lasting inspiration has served him through 40 years of helping make the annual Terry Fox Run a success.
This year, the event will be held locally on Sept. 15, starting with orientation at 1 p.m. at the Bonnyville Splash Park.
Parsons says the event will happen rain or shine and that it is open to everyone - from babies in strollers to seniors with walkers.
“It’s a great way to enjoy Jessie Lake... You can walk, bike, or run – you can bring your dog, walk your cat, your budgie bird, your iguana - whatever you want... This is an inclusive event,” says Parsons.
Parsons has witnessed the community come together in the past for the Terry Fox Run, and believes it is a place where strangers can form friendships, children can learn and be inspired about philanthropy, and small donations made by the collective can make a big difference.
“It’s a great fundraiser. It raises hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer [across the country], it’s incredible. It spreads awareness and gets the community involved – a kid can pitch in a toonie. You don’t have to be rich – it really works on the donations of millions of Canadians, not just a few big philanthropists,” says Parsons
Parsons personally understands the impact of a cancer diagnosis, having his stomach removed along with a tumor. Years ago, he went from a vibrant athlete running maximum uphill intervals to collapsing and being rushed to the hospital the following evening.
“Still in a daze of anesthetics and pain killers, what I ‘thought’ my surgeon said to me in French was that he removed all of my stomach and a part of my liver, because of a cancer tumor the size of a cantaloupe. So, I mumbled ‘OK, could you please repeat that in English, because I misunderstood you in French.’ Dr. Marois repeated the same thing in English... it sounded better in French,” recalls Parsons.
Before that moment, Terry Fox had already been a major inspiration in Parsons’ life.
“It was my first year in residence, 1980 at the University of Alberta, and we watched this guy stick his foot in the ocean and start running across Canada. We gathered every night to watch the national news, with Barbara Frum, Barbara from the CBC national news - every night there would be an update on Terry Fox,” says Parsons.
Notably, the very reporter who followed Terry Fox, lost her own battle to cancer at the age of 54.
Parsons and his university friends were athletes of the same age as Terry Fox, and he recalls the moment they found out about Fox’s passing due to cancer.
“We were all balling. It was an all-male, tough, rural Saskatchewan/rural Alberta farm boys' group and we bawled our eyes out the day he died,” says Parsons. “It just knocked us right off our side. We thought he was invincible.”
Parsons has since become a passionate advocate for the planet's health, which in turn he believes protects human health.
Parsons has also travelled around the world and says the Terry Fox Run has an international impact – not just national.
“I just think this [event] is so important. It's a fixture on the Canadian calendar and around the world. I’ve travelled to 40 countries, and they all have Terry Fox Runs. He’s a Canadian icon... What an amazing thing to be a part of.”
For more information about the upcoming Terry Fox Run in Bonnyville, to access a pledge sheet, or to sponsor the local run, visit the Terry Fox Foundation website.
https://run.terryfox.ca/bonnyville
