Porter Creek Secondary School (PCSS) did their annual Terry Fox Run/Walk Thursday.

The run/walk took place from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and went from Hickory St. to Wann Rd., took a turn onto Centennial St. and went back to the school on 12 Ave.

The Star spoke with the organizer, PCSS English teacher Trena Irving, during the walk.

She’s been organizing the event for about 15 years.

Irving teaches English, among other subjects, at PCSS.

“I get my English class to write letters to local businesses and get them to sponsor the run with food and drink and then we sell the food and drink at lunch time and all the fundraising goes to the Terry Fox Foundation. And if we don’t quite make a $1,000, then I make sure I top it up, because cancer’s been rampant in my family, like, everybody’s had it. So, yeah, this is an important cause.”

Irving said she watched legendary Canadian cancer fundraiser Terry Fox on TV.

“We drove across Canada because we moved to Ontario. That’s when he died, and I remember stopping in Thunder Bay and seeing the statue and just bawling my eyes out, like, with the rest of Canadians, so, an important event to me.”

Irving estimated between 200 to 300 students participated in the run/walk.

“It’s the whole school but sometimes some people don’t come, of course.”

Save On Foods, Dominos Pizza, Real Canadian Superstore and Panagos Pizza sponsored the run/walk this year.

“These local businesses have sponsored our school run over the past several years, including this year, and they are the key to us being able to make our $1,000 donation goal,” related Irving.

“They have been very, very supportive. I can’t say enough good about that cause there’s no way we would make $1,000 without their support.”

Irving said for the students, writing the letters is a real life experience of getting sponsorships.

“It’s pretty cool.”

As for how it came about, Irving said her predecessor, Gail Chase, organized the Toonie for Terry fundraiser.

“I took over her job, so she was like, ‘You should keep this going’, so I did that, as well as the food, but now I’m just kind of saying to teachers, ‘If you can collect donations’, and then we do the food at lunchtime.

“It’s nice for the kids, sort of relaxing to go around with their friends, listen to some music, chat.

“I don’t know if any of them fully appreciate what Terry Fox did, but I was showing my Grade 8’s today a bit of a video about his life story and it’s absolutely incredible. I’ve driven across Canada. I couldn’t imagine riding my bike across Canada, much less running on one leg. And he made it a big chunk of the way. Cause Ontario’s huge, right? It’s pretty incredible.”

Irving, also a prominent sports coach in the community, described how the various activities she’s involved in are related to the fight against cancer.

“I’m very involved with kids because I like to keep kids out of behaviours that I feel cause cancer – vaping, smoking, drugs, drinking. I live very clean, so I try to promote that. Just try to get kids to have fun doing something where they’re pushing themselves and getting lots of oxygen because bodies can’t really have cancer running through them with oxygen. It’s sort of like, oxygen helps with that.”

Irving agreed that cancer is one of those things that touches everybody’s lives, including her own.

“My mom had cancer when I was in Grade 7. She didn’t pass away from it, but it was really scary, and then my dad died of cancer. My mom, both of her parents died of cancer.”

“It’s really hard to watch somebody going through it.”

Irving thinks it’s good to do regular prevention of common cancers, such as breast and prostrate cancer.

Irving encourages all Yukon schools to do a run, get students involved in fundraising and raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation, as it’s very rewarding to give a sizeable donation each year in  the name of Terry Fox.

As for how much was raised, at last count it was said to be at $1200.00, but with a little more money to come in, it was estimated in the end $1300.00 will have been raised.