Over 100 people participated in Brantford’s annual Terry Fox Run on Sunday, September 14, 2025.
Residents joined hundreds of communities across Canada and around the world in running to honour the memory of Terry Fox and to raise funds for cancer research.
In 1977, Fox had his right leg amputated just weeks after being diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma at the age of 18.
Having witnessed the suffering of other cancer patients during his time in treatment, Fox decided to run across to Canada to raise money for cancer research, kicking off his Marathon of Hope 45 years ago in St. John’s, Nfld. on April 12, 1980.
He stopped in more than 400 towns, schools and cities to share his message, but after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, he was forced to stop running on September 1 after it was discovered that cancer had appeared in his lungs.
While Fox later died on June 28, 1981, his dream of raising awareness and funds for cancer research continued on, and the Terry Fox Foundation has since raised over $900 million in his honour.
On the day of the event, both cancer survivors and general supporters arrived bright and early at the Lions Park Arena Steve Brown Sports Complex to register and submit their last-minute donations to the cause.
As they waited to start their two-, five- or ten-kilometre runs, many participants took the opportunity to chat with others, share their own stories, or write down who they were running in honour of.
While many were taking part in the event for the first time, several other community members consider the event a long-standing tradition.
David Sargent, 72, said he started participating in the event back in 2002, but he’s been actively raising funds since 2005.
“Over the years, my original goal was to raise $25,000, but I recently found out that I’ve actually raised around $70,000,” he said.
Sargent shared that although he’s done the ten-kilometre route in the past, this year he was opting to do five-kilometre as he was trying to take it easy for an upcoming prognosis update.
“I just fought cancer myself; I was diagnosed in the spring of 2024 with prostate cancer and with cancer on my left kidney, my pancreas and my gallbladder,” he said. “I had surgery last October but I was able to return to work as a crossing guard as of April 2 this year. I actually go in for my prognosis update at the end of September so I don’t want to push myself too hard.”
Sargent added that this year will likely be his last time participating in the run, but that he was looking forward to joining the volunteer committee in 2026.
“It feels great for my final run,” he said. “Next year I’m going to be joining up with the volunteer committee to help them arrange and set up the event.”
Just before the run got underway, Garrett Riley, a local athlete who won a silver medal during the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing, spoke about what the event meant to him.
“It’s definitely a huge honour to be here and to see this amazing turnout. I grew up playing stand up hockey, but unfortunately, at the age of 15, I was diagnosed with cancer, the same cancer that Terry Fox had,” he told the crowd. “I went through a lot of surgeries and all that kind of stuff, but now I have this amazing leg and it’s opened up a lot of different avenues. It helped me to look at life a little bit differently and change my mindset, and in 2022 I was able to go to the Paralympics to play sledge hockey and bring back a silver medal. …So I appreciate you all having me and coming out to this amazing cause, this community means the world to me.”
Later, Mike Bitton and Pauline Cecile, Brantford run co-ordinators, said they were pleased with the event’s turnout and couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with emotion.
“We’re happy, excited and just thrilled to see everyone here today,” said Cecile. “It’s a lot of work preparing and really reaching out to people, but to see everyone show up today makes it all worth it.”
While this year’s goal was to locally raise $13,600, by the morning of the run, residents had already raised over $16,000, all of which will go towards supporting cancer research.
“Raising money is so important because there’s always new treatments that are required,” said Bitton. “It’s an ongoing battle for the individuals and even the research community to have the funding to be able to do the research, to run the tests and to find cures for cancer, so any bit helps.”
According to the two organizers, as of Tuesday, September 16, the total raised from the Brantford run currently sits at $19,994.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
