3-14-08, 9:29 am

Havana, March 13 (acn) The President and scientific director of Canada’s Terry Fox cancer research center, is in Havana to attend the 10th Marathon of Hope scheduled for March 15.

Victor Ling is going to give a lecture at the Cuba-Canada Workshop on Cancer at the Hotel Nacional, in Havana.

Also present on the Terry Fox Run on Saturday along with Ling will be the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Michael Chambers, who arrived at Havana on Wednesday.

Carlos Gattorno, director of the organizing committee of the Race, told ACN, that some 30,000 people have volunteered to participate in the run, with the longest stretch being 3 kms and the shortest 1 km.

The signal will be given at 10 am on March 15 through the national radio station Radio Reloj to start at the same time in all the municipalities of the country, as well as rural and mountainous communities.

More than 5,000 runs are expected to take places throughout the country, said Gattorno.

In addition, foreign visitors have been invited to join the run as well in all the tourist facilities of the island, whose most important tourist market is Canada.

He said the run will contribute to spread in Cuba the spirit and tenacity of the young Canadian Terry Fox, who made a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research.

As a consequence of the cancer in his knee, Fox’s right leg was amputated when he was only 18 years old. Three years after losing his leg, the young athlete decided to run from coast to coast in order to raise money for cancer research. He ran 42 Km a day for 143 days before being forced to stop in September, 1980. Ten months later he died.

The Terry Fox Run is a non-competitive event, and anyone can participate. People can either run or walk, go in wheel chairs, skates or bicycles.

The funds collected during the event are used in Cuba for breast and uterine-cervix cancer research, as those are the most common type of cancer among Cuban women.

From Cuban News Agency