More than five dozen people took off from the Forfar ball diamond here on the annual Terry Fox run on Sept. 19 – but a runner who could not attend managed to raise the most money.
In fact, Fergus lawyer Doug Jack set a new record for one-man fundraising in the Fergus run. He was in Washington D.C. over the weekend, but that did not stop him from taking part in the annual Terry Fox run – he just did it in the U.S. instead.
Run organizer Dorothy Smith said Jack emailed her several times over the weekend, and his total pledges just kept rising because he did not stop seeking them just because he was outside of the country.
Just prior to the start of the run and walk, Jack’s total had reached $4,334. But by Sunday night, when he sent another email, that total had climbed to $5,253. That is well over half of the record set for Fergus, which collected $9,460 for the annual run to find a cure for cancer.
“We’ve never had anyone raise this amount,” said Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, who thanked all the participants for their work raising money over the years. She said Smith had told her the Fergus area total raised has now reached over $131,000 from the Terry Fox Run.
Ross-Zuj thanked the township’s recreation staff, which has been volunteering as the organizer for the run for many years.
Terry Fox has cast a long shadow since he began his run across Canada over 30 years ago to raise money to find a cure. The one-legged runner got to northern Ontario before the cancer returned and he died soon after, but his courage has inspired millions – and also raised many millions of dollars.
Jason Dixon, of Fergus, has always admired Terry Fox, and this year he attended the run with a memento of the runner tattooed onto his leg.
Dixon said he took four different sketches with him to Sugar Shack Tattoos, in Kincardine, to get the artwork he wanted, and the artist used those different sections to complete the tattoo.
Dixon said it was so well done, people who first saw it thought it was a sticker.
As for why he got the tattoo of Fox, Dixon said, “It was either that or the Canadian Flag. I thought I’d go with the one that’s more Canadian.”
A photo of Dixon’s leg and the tattoo cast an eerie shadow that many in the recreation department thought was a strong reminder of Fox’s artificial leg. The photo will be sent by Smith to the Terry Fox Foundation, which collects images of Fox from around Canada.
