After last year’s virtual event the Thorold Terry Fox Run, which aims to raise money for cancer search, is back in person this year on September 19th. Cindy Dickson, the event’s organizer says, “We’re going try and do something special.”
Dickson had been attending the Thorold Terry Fox Run for as long as she can remember, but when her daughter got diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago the event suddenly became very personal. Says Dickson, “I am the team captain for Team Candace who is my daughter. She had a life-saving stem cell transplant and she’s still here. My whole life I’ve always attended the Terry Fox Run in Thorold but when this particular situation happened to me, I became obviously a lot more passionate about it. ”
In 2019 Mike Charron, who started the Thorold chapter of the worldwide event 40 years ago, asked Dickson to take over the organization. Says Dickson, “He kind of took to the story of my daughter. He was very inspired by her. He was having some heart problems of his own and on the 39th (edition) he came to me and said, ‘I need someone to take over the reigns. I can’t keep doing this any longer’.”
Dickson says she was honoured and accepted the offer, but then in her first year as organizer Covid-19 hit. Says Dickson, “Not only was it the 40th anniversary, it was my first year taking over entirely for him and it was very disappointing. Worldwide the run went virtual and everything was done online and by Facebook. That said, we still managed (to raise) $21,678.”
Since the start of the Thorold Terry Fox Run 40 years ago, the local Thorold community has raised $459,819 for the Terry Fox Foundation and Dickson hopes to add lots more to that total this year.
Dickson says cancer can’t be forgotten even if we are in a pandemic. “Cancer is not gone because of Covid and I feel very strongly about that. My daughter still fights every single day with certain things, but people have kinda put everything else on the back burner because of Covid. Cancer is still here, people are fighting and getting diagnosed every single day.”
And that’s why Dickson says she’ll never stop fighting “just so others can have the positive outcome that we’ve had”.
The Thorold Terry Fox Run takes place on September 19th and will start from the Thorold Community Credit Union. Registration begins at 9am and the walk will begin at 10am. If you want to register or donate money, head over to www.terryfox.ca/terryfoxrun/thorold
