Thousands of Chinese volunteers and many foreigners took part in a charity race or the Terry Fox Run in Shanghai on Sunday in an aim to collect funds for cancer patients.

 

The joggers joined the 8th annual Terry Fox Run in Pudong Century Park in memory of the Canadian, who tried 25 years ago to run across his country with an artificial leg after losing the original limb to cancer. Fox died the following year.

 

With the dual goals of raising funds for cancer research and generating awareness about cancer, the annual charity event has been the largest of its kind held in the metropolis in eastern China, according to the race's coorganizers of Shanghai Charity Foundation and Shanghai General Administration of Sport.

 

Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete who lost his leg to cancer when he was a teenager, launched a five-month Marathon of Hope in 1980 to raise money for cancer research.

 

After running for 5,376 kilometers, the cancer that had taken his right leg spread to his lungs and forced Fox to quit.

 

He died less than a year at 21, but his courage, vision and determination continue to influence others.

 

People from about 70 countries and regions participated in the charity event every year to continue Fox's goal of raising money for cancer research.

 

Shanghai joined the tradition in 1998 by launching the 1st Annual Terry Fox Run. Local residents and foreigners have raised more than 2.2 million yuan (over US$270,000) in the past seven consecutive events here for Terry Fox Run Cancer Research Center at the local Ruijin Hospital.

 

To date, The Terry Fox Foundation has raised US$360 million for cancer research, well beyond the one million dollars Terry Fox hoped to raise on his trek.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2005)