Fred Setterington is already $6,000 of the way towards his $10,000 fundraising goal 鈥� now he just has to complete an epic 21-day run from Langley to 琉璃神社, Kamloops, and back home again.
The run has been five years in the making, Setterington explained as he was about to set off from the Langley Events Centre on the morning of Monday, July 7.
His motivation was the loss of friends and family members to cancer over the years.
"I've had four parents, including my two in laws, pass away in the past five years," Setterington said.
All of them had been through cancer, and for three of them it was their cause of death.
He's also been inspired his whole life by Terry Fox, the young man who ran halfway across Canada on a prosthetic after losing a leg to cancer. Fox's 1980 Marathon of Hope raised $1.7 million and covered 5,373 kilometres before he was forced to stop after his cancer returned. By the end of the year, Fox's run had raised $23 million. He died of cancer in 1981.
"Terry Fox has been a hero to me throughout my life," Setterington said.
The Langley man had planned to undertake the epic run in 2023, but an injury sidelined him.
"Two years ago, I partially tore my achilles tendon," Setterington said.
It took him six months to heal up, and then he had to begin training all over again.
A teacher at Lynn Fripps Elementary, he'll be running about 42 kilometres 鈥� the equivalent of a full marathon 鈥� every day. He's breaking each day's running into two sections. On day one, he was heading out to 264 Street for the first section, and then as far as Sumas by the end of the day in the second run. He was to be accompanied on his first day by Anthony Stephenson, the parent of one of Setterington's students.
After training seven days a week, he's ready to undertake the gruelling run this time.
His run is dubbed Hope's Marathon: A Run to Conquer Cancer after his daughter, Hope.
Setterington said he hopes his run will help share the stories of people who have survived or are battling cancer, as well as making a contribution towards finding a cure for the disease through his fundraising.