Hundreds turn out for inaugural Terry Fox run in Wrexham

Terry Fox was a 22-year-old athlete who lost his right leg to a rare bone cancer, osteogenic sarcoma. Running on a prosthetic limb, he made headlines worldwide in 1980 when he ran 3,339 miles over 143 days, an average of a marathon a day, across Canada.

He called it his ‘Marathon of Hope.’ Its purpose was to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Terry had to stop his run when the cancer spread to his lungs, and less than a year later, he died. 

He’s now widely considered a Canadian hero and every year since 1981, a Terry Fox Run is held in more than 60 cities around the world. To date, over £500 million has been raised for cancer research through these charity runs.

No city or town in Wales had ever hosted a Terry Fox Run, but on Sunday (October 13), Wrexham became the first.

The free event, held at Bellevue Park, was made up of a 2.5km or 5km route around Bellevue Park, with participants able to walk, run or bike the route.

Around 400 people turned out for the run yesterday and organisers say there's already questions about whether the event will return to Wrexham. 

Organiser Sandy Shipley said: "The outcome of the weekend as a whole surpassed any of our planned imaginations! We had the best committee (a mix of Canadians and local Wrexham people).

"As this was the first Welsh run we didn't know what it would look like or what the response would be in reality. Seeing so many familiar faces from my previous visits to Wrexham and seeing triple the amount of new people was incredible.

"The response has been more than we could have imagined. We're going to be working at engaging more schools in the coming months so by the next Terry Fox run we have more school participation. 

"Personally, having been to Wrexham 31 times, I just felt this had to be the place to have Wales' first Terry Fox Run and I can only see this growing especially as more and more people get to understand more about it and it’s inclusivity for all to participate."