Join the fight against cancer on Sept. 20
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Chris Abbott
Editor
This year’s Terry Fox Run in Simcoe on Sunday, Sept. 20 starts – and finishes - at the Lions Park on Davis Street East.
Online registration can be completed at run.terryfox.ca - type Norfolk in the search box and you will be taken to a link for the local 2026 run page (run.terryfox.ca/129759).
Shelley Weiler has been coordinating the Tillsonburg Terry Fox Run for the past seven years.
Over the years she has learned several ‘best practices’ from the Terry Fox Foundation and other run organizers.
“One thing that I found impressive was to really focus on teams, and to support the team experience. Keeping that in mind, last year we had a goal to create a community team, a business team, and a sports team… to really pull these people in, because the team building you get from a Terry Fox Run is unbelievable. It really promotes community spirit. It’s really, really nice when you can have a team and everyone’s working together.”
Currently four Tillsonburg teams have registered online – Inovata Foods, Hill’s Pharmacy, Systemair Community Cares, and Walker-Piette.
Another best practice was designing Terry Fox ‘door hangers,’ allowing them to reach out to brand new neighbourhoods with a personal touch… without actually knocking door-to-door.
“We wanted to welcome new residents in our town to this event, and that’s been really outstanding for us. Hanging an invitation on their doors, that’s been really, really nice, and it’s allowed us to grow a little bit.”
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Terry Fox chose a path of perseverance and positive action when he was diagnosed with bone cancer, and had his leg amputated three days later, at the age of 18.
His experiences in the hospital, and the children he met there, were a driving force behind his determination to raise money for cancer research. After 18 months of training, Terry embarked on his Marathon of Hope, and 45 years later his legacy continues across Canada and internationally. Over $1 billion has been raised since the run began.
Terry’s dream was a world without cancer, and his remarkable example has inspired millions of people to take up the torch and carry on in his name.
Funds raised at the Terry Fox Run go to the Terry Fox Foundation and the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), which share Terry’s vision. Their mandate is to ‘fund and pursue innovative research to find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent all cancers.’
From a personal standpoint, Weiler recalls joining a cancer research project to get treatment when she was just five years old.
“That was the only way I could get radiation treatments actually. It was brand new.”
She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Wilms Tumor (kidney cancer) in February 1980, just months before the first Marathon of Hope.
“I was placed in a study, and it effectively saved my life. I would not be here today without it. The Wilms Tumor treatment plan for children at that time was surgery, two years of chemotherapy, and once radiation was finally approved for children in Canada, then it was another two years of radiation.
“Now, they may or may not have to remove the kidney. They may or may not have to do chemotherapy. And it’s usually only two sessions of radiation, for a total of six weeks.
“So that’s the difference that research makes over the years.”
Terry Fox helped put a ‘face on cancer’, said Weiler.
“At the time I was diagnosed, I didn’t know anyone that had cancer.”
This year’s Terry Fox Run theme is Finish It, which will continue until the 50th anniversary.
- with files from by Robin Krafft.
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