Keeping Terry’s dream alive

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This article was published 17/09/2017 (3291 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six-year-old Mateo Saldivar may have been born three decades after Terry Fox died from cancer, but he is already a veteran of several annual Terry Fox Runs.

“I’ve been in five runs. I’ve been doing it since I was one,” Mateo said shortly after sprinting to the finish line of the three-kilometre run in front of his family and before high-fiving his twin sister Bella.

“I like that people keep believing in Terry. Terry is my hero.”

And another 1,500 Winnipeggers felt the same way.

Whether they ran, walked, cycled or were pushed in strollers, numerous Winnipeggers took a few hours out of their Sunday morning to participate in the 37th annual run being held at Assiniboine Park.

The first run was held in 1981, shortly after Fox died at 22 after being forced to end his Marathon of Hope nine months before when the cancer he had fought, and caused his leg to be amputated, spread into his lungs.

James Follette, a run spokesman, admitted organizers were hoping for more people to come out to Assiniboine Park but said “it is a bit chilly and there was rain forecast.”

But Follette, who said final numbers for the fundraiser will come out later, said it’s okay because locally they have raised about $500,000 in the last five years.

Kim Walker, the run’s incoming co-ordinator, said “I always hope for 2,000, but the numbers don’t matter.

“What matters is they’ve come out and are keeping Terry’s dream alive.”

Mateo’s mother, Pam, said it’s the first year that her son sprinted the entire way.

She said she, her son, daughter, husband and mother were all participating in honour of her late grandmother, who was a cancer survivor, and took them to the run every year.

“I was probably four or five years old the first time I was in a run,” Pam said.

Nearby, Kim Antonio with her three children Olivia, seven, Michael, four, and 22-month-old Sam in a stroller, crossed the finish line with her friend Grant Mitchell pushing the stroller.

“We ran for my grandmother,” Antonio said.

“She had breast cancer and she has been four years clear and strong.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca