[1]The fourth instalment of the Terry Fox run is back in the city. Organised in the past years by Chennai boy Akash Dube, this year’s run is being taken forward by Akash’s family and friends as 19-year-old Akash died of a rare kind of blood cancer in May this year.
On Sunday (August 26) over 10,000 people will join the 6-km run through IIT-Madras, this time as much for Akash as for marathon runner Terry Fox.
The Terry Fox run is named after the Canadian athlete who survived bone cancer and a leg-amputation at the age of 18, to continue running marathons with his prosthetic leg.
The run is held in 53 countries to raise funds for cancer research and Akash used to religiously participate in the Dubai event since he was 11, until 2009, when he found himself stuck in a hospital bed in Chennai, undergoing chemotherapy for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
“If I couldn’t go to the run, why not bring the run to Chennai?” was Akash’s attitude when he organised the very first Terry Fox run in August 2009.
The subsequent two events have raised over Rs 50 lakh, given to the Tata Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research.
During last year’s Terry Fox run, Akash had told this reporter that he had been cured and his cancer had gone into remission.
Akash Dube had just joined Stanford University and dreamed of one day finding a cancer cure that required just a single injection, and not months of harsh chemotherapy, like the regime he had been put through.
“His cancer returned in December 2011 and he fought bravely till the end. The Terry Fox run is Akash’s legacy and we hope many people will join us to try and outrun cancer,” said Ms Sujatha Dube, Akash’s mother.
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