ABU DHABI // More than 20,000 walkers and runners took part in the Terry Fox run in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Organisers said the turnout was slightly higher than last year, when 20,000 showed up to the annual event.
The 8.5-kilometre run raised Dh387,000 yesterday alone, compared to Dh260,000 the previous year. Total donations have yet to be calculated but organisers said they hoped they would meet last year’s amount of Dh750,000.
The event raises funds for cancer research in honour of the Canadian amputee runner Terry Fox who, at 21, died while attempting an 8,000km trek across his homeland with a prosthetic right leg after losing his at age 18, in 1977, to osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. His aim was to raise money for cancer research.
“It went really well and the event was beautiful,” said Nafisa Taha, an organiser for the run. “Although Terry Fox was an athlete, for us it’s a family event and a family celebration. It’s more like a walk on the Corniche – you have babies from one month old to people as old as 80.”
The Abu Dhabi event, which started off with only 100 people and is now considered the largest Terry Fox run outside of Canada, attracted a number of Government officials, diplomats and schools.
Some of the attendees included Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Social Development, his son, Sheikh Shakbut, and his grandchildren.
Also present was a professor from UAE University who benefited from a Terry Fox donation for his research on breast cancer.
“We had Judith Fox [Terry’s sister] and her daughter, Jessica, who both work for the international foundation,” said Ms Taha. “We had the organisers from the Dubai run, too, as well as the Canadian ambassador and his wife to celebrate the life of Terry Fox, and the ambassadors from Germany and France.”
The Canadian Embassy raised Dh25,000 for the run by offering all its dignitaries free T-shirts if they participated.
“This year, we decided that to celebrate Canada’s flag day, it would be better to support the run than to do a reception by celebrating a great Canadian,” said Arif Lalani, Canada’s ambassador to the UAE.
“Normally, if I would do a reception, I’d invite 300 to 400 people, so I invited these people to the run and I bought them T-shirts. We thought the best way to do it was to invite our friends but donate the money.”
Mr Lalani said the run, his second in Abu Dhabi, was a great experience: “It was fantastic. For me, the run was great and it really reflects a compassionate Canada and the compassionate nature of everybody who lives here.”
Up to 130 companies and 16 schools also took part in the run. “It was amazing, the kids loved it and we had to kick them out because they enjoyed it so much,” said Ms Taha.
“It’s a true family event. The weather was great, the turnout was beautiful, the committee was amazing and we had the police on standby, who were very impressive.”
From 30th street up to Corniche Hospital and back, the run started at about 10.15am and ended at 1pm.
“We arrived at 5.30am because of the heat, so we made sure we had our supporters from Arwa water to Almarai drinks and Tim Hortons to provide coffee, sandwiches and snacks,” Ms Taha said.
“We had food from different hotels for our 300 to 400 volunteers from different schools who were working at the six water stations along the Corniche and the registration stand.”
The event included entertainment from Radio 1’s DJ Saif and a zumba class in the morning to keep runners motivated. “We had one guy who wrote a rap song about Terry Fox and his courage,” she added.
cmalek@thenational.ae