PREECEVILLE, Sask. — Students and staff from Preeceville School were acknowledged by the Terry Fox organization for their participation in the Terry Fox Run for 45 years.
The school assembled in front of the building on Sept. 28 with banners representing each consecutive five-year period of the 45 years it has participated in the foundation's run.
“We are so very proud of our students and their efforts in believing in the Terry Fox Run,” stated a spokesperson from the school.
Last year, the community raised $2,975 through the school’s efforts. The school received a phone call from the organization, which stated that, according to its records, Preeceville School is the only school in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have participated in the run every year since the beginning.
The following was taken from the Terry Fox Foundation website.
Eighteen-year-old Terry Fox of Port Coquitlam, B.C., never saw himself as remarkable. Granted, he displayed an unusual determination to achieve the goals he set for himself, but his orbit was local — family, school, sports and friends.
But Terry’s cancer diagnosis of osteosarcoma just above the knee, the subsequent amputation of his leg and his experience in the children’s cancer wards changed all that.
A newly nurtured reservoir of compassion, combined with a fierce determination to bring an end to the suffering cancer causes, set Terry on a path that, quite simply, changed the world.
Terry’s personal experience and research led him to a simple conclusion — more money was needed for cancer research.
And so, in the modest but motivated style that would prove to be his trademark, Terry started training and planning for his cross-Canada run to raise funds for cancer research.
He dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean on April 12, 1980, and proceeded to unite Canadians in a way never before, nor since, seen.
The only thing that could have stopped Terry from reaching the Pacific Ocean was when the cancer returned in his lungs and he was forced to stop on Sept. 1, 1980, after having run 5,373 kilometres.
Before his death on June 28, 1981, Terry had achieved his once-unimaginable goal of $1 from every Canadian.
More importantly, he had set in motion the framework for an event, the Terry Fox Run, that would ignite cancer research in Canada, raising more than $850 million since 1980 and bringing hope and health to millions of Canadians.
