The South Surrey Terry Fox Run raised more than $12,750 on Sunday.
Before the run, Aart Looye, who has participated in every run since its inception, shared a small story with the crowd about the time he met Terry Fox.
Looye told the crowd he was a student in Thunder Bay in 1980, where Fox was forced to end his run after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres.
“I took the last $10 of my beer money, because I was a student, eh?” Looye said to the crowd. “And because I’m a Canadian, eh? I gave it to him and I’m sure glad I did.”
Looye and his wife are both cancer survivors. The memory of meeting Fox, he said, will stay with him forever.
Fox died partway through his Marathon of Hope across Canada, on June 28, 1981 at age 22.
To date, more than $750 million has been raised for cancer research.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story stated the run had raised $6,400 dollars. The correct figure is $12,757.