Bonnyville will see multiple different opportunities for people to join the newly named Terry’s Tough Trail as they run for cancer research.
Every year Canadians grab their shoes and run in September in remembrance of Terry Fox who ran across Canada by foot after losing his right leg to cancer.
This year, different runs will be available across three separate days and trails.
Les Parsons the organizer for the Bonnyville Terry Fox Run says normally there is only one run in a community and people are busy on that day.
“A lot of families are busy so I thought why not expand it for lots of different times and let people do the Terry Fox run when they are free.”
The first run will take place on September 15th between 4 PM – 6:30 PM at Jessie Lake and given runners two different options for trails: The Jessie Lake Paved Trail or The Jessie Lake Tree Trail.
A second run will take place on September 17 from 9 AM to 11 AM at Muriel Lake Campground.
The final two runs both take place on Sunday, September 18th between 8 AM – 9:30 AM and 1 PM – 2:30 PM and give participants the option between the two Jessie Lakel trails again.
The Jessie Lake Trails will give runners, walkers, joggers, and everyone else a choice of 1km, 2kms, 4kms, or 8kms long runs but the Muriel Lake run only offers 1km and 8kms runs.
“I remember watching Terry Fox and all of us guys would watch the news and see this guy hop across Canada in the rain, wind, dark, and cold and we just thought man look at this crazy guy go across the country raising funds for cancer.”
Parsons says he was inspired by the story of Terry Fox and was heartbroken when it came to an end in Thunder Bay.
Years later Parsons would find his own battle with Cancer and said it really gave him a focus on the disease.
“I had a close call with death with Cancer 16 years ago and that is one of the reasons I am motivated to volunteer to be the Terry Fox run organizer. If we had the technology today back in the day Terry Fox might have survived.”
Parsons says he has personally benefited from all the cancer research and sees his volunteer work as paying it forward to the future generation and paying it to Terry Fox.
To learn more information about the Bonnyville Terry Fox RunLes Parsons can be contacted at 780-691-6912 and information about the pledge sheets can be found at www.terryfox.org.