Sunday was a picture perfect day for some fresh air and exercise and it led to a great turnout for the 44th annual Terry Fox Marathon of Hope run in Belleville.
$56,000 was raised, beating last year’s record of $50,000.
Forty-eight thousand dollars had already been raised by 10:30 a.m. and all of the money hadn’t yet been accounted for.
For 13 years Vicki Samaras has led the local Terry Fox Run and its many volunteers.
She tells Quinte News people keep showing up and donating to support people like 31-year-old Kayla Rose, a 31-year-old woman who’s had a double mastectomy and is now fighting bone cancer.
“At 31 should you be thinking about breast cancer? No! You should be thinking about your life, your career, your family, you know what I mean? And that’s who we’re running for and for everyone we’ve lost.”
Samaras says the money raised will help with cancer research locally and nationally. The Terry Fox Foundation has created Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres across the country linking top oncologists.
“When you say is it local? It is local because we’re now connecting local to every province, they’re talking now ….. why is it working for you? What’s working, what isn’t? How can we make it better? Better care, better cures?”
Since the Belleville Terry Fox Run began, close to $1.1 million has been raised locally.
From left to right: Belleville councillor Garnet Thompson, Quinte West councillor Karen Sharpe, Quinte News/Broadcasting’s John Spitters (now recovering from radiation therapy for cancer of the larynx), Terry Fox Run organizer Vicki Samaras, MIX97’s Sean Kelly, Quinte Broadcasting’s Lauren Roberts, John Deloges, and in the foreground Terry Fox Run Canada Summer Jobs student Emily Esperanzate. (Photo: Quinte News)
The County Crows volunteered to entertain with some classic rock at the Belleville Terry Fox Run. (Photo: Quinte News)
