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paid homage at the statue of the great Terry Fox, a Canadian distance
runner and basketball champion who lost a leg to osteosarcoma but
in 1980 ran across Canada with an artificial leg to raise money for can-
cer research. In his Marathon of Hope, he ran 5373 kilometres over
143 days before the cancer, which by then had reached his lungs,
forced him to pull out. He died nine months later. Today, the annual
Terry Fox Run is the largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research in
the world and has raised over C$500 million for the cause. Terry, you're
no longer with us, but you're an inspiration.
June 6
Next stop was Montreal, which, hard to believe, is almost at the end of
the Canadian leg of my run. It has taken me exactly 16 days to run the
1350-odd kilometres: an average of 84 kilometres a day, which is good,
considering the time we spent getting things together in Radisson.
Montreal, which is located where the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence
Rivers meet, is an impressive city with its striking mix of modern and
older buildings. I'm hoping I can remember some of my schoolboy
French because it is the largest French-speaking city in the world apart
from Paris.
I was interviewed by a reporter from a local TV news program as
soon as I ran into town. He asked if he could call me a freak of nature,
and I jokingly said that would be fine! I used the opportunity to broad-
cast my message to people to dig deep. From there, I was ushered to
Montreal City Hall, where I was invited to an official reception and
signed the city's topic of Honour. On a page headed 'Monsieur Pat
Farmer, Ancien Membre du Parlement Australien, le Six Juin, 2011', I
signed my name. I thanked the people of Canada for all their support
and donated one of my running shirts as a memento. The mayor called
me 'a marathon runner with a heart of gold' and on behalf of Montreal
made a generous donation to the Canadian Red Cross.
As I ran out of town earlier this evening, across a bridge span-
ning a wide, rolling waterway, I realised that when I think of Canada,
I'll always think of the rivers I crossed. That's fitting, because water is
what my run is all about.
North Pole . . . tick. Canada . . . tick. Two stages down, many more
to go. Tomorrow I'll be in the United States.
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