The 2006 edition of the yearly charity race, Beijing Terry Fox Run, will take place on September 23rd to raise money for the cancer research.

 

This year's Terry Fox Run in Beijing will start from the Worker's Stadium at ten o'clock in the morning and will finish at the Cancer Hospital with a distance of approximately eight kilometers.

 

Participants can run, walk, ride their bikes, use their wheel chairs or their roller blades.

 

The Runs will also be held in Shanghai and GuangZhou later this fall.

 

Canadian Terry Fox initiated the race in 1977 when the 18-year-old at that time, still a college student, was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated.

 

In 1980, Terry started his charity race, also named Marathon of Hope, across Canada on an artificial leg to raise money for cancer research.

 

After Terry died in 1981, people held the race to commemorate Terry's feat and raise money for cancer research.

 

In 1998, the first time of Marathon of Hope in China was held in Shanghai. Beijing began to hold the yearly run next year with tens of thousands of participants joined this activity in Beijing.

 

Last year, funds raised amounted to over 1.2 million RMB (about US$150.000).

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2006)