'We're so proud of him."
That was evident as Salmon Arm's Lana McNeil recounted how her 10-year-old son Jack recently followed in the footsteps of Terry Fox and laced up his sneakers to run in support of cancer research that raised just under $1,300.
The initiative has long been a goal of the Bastion Elementary student after seeing friends and family affected by cancer, then learning about Fox really inspired Jack to embark on a run to raise funds for research.
"He's actually been wanting to do it for a year," McNeil said. "He learned about Terry Fox and... wanted to do something like Terry Fox had done. Initially it started out he wanted to run from Salmon Arm to Vancouver."
Though they admired his ambitious goal, Lana and her husband, Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil, convinced him to scale it back to the more manageable distance of Salmon Arm to Enderby, done over two days. Before pounding the pavement, however, Jack's first step was to contact the BC Cancer Foundation, which then set up a donation page for him that allowed supporters to just click the link and donate directly.
On Friday, Nov. 8 Jack set off on the first leg of the trip, accompanied by mom, and ran 11 kilometres from Shuswap Lake General Hospital to Mellors Esso out on Highway 97B. The following day, Nov. 9, he completed the final 12 km stretch from Mellors to Sutherland's Bakery in Enderby.
"It was really long, and then the second day it was raining as well, but that didn't stop him," Lana said. "He wanted to finish it."
She added that supporters had organized an official finish line at the end, with family, his friend and members of the Enderby RCMP with their lights going all gathered to cheer him on, complete with a ribbon and a "Go Jack" sign from his sister.
"He was exhausted... but when he saw that he literally left me in the dust, running to the finish line to break that ribbon," Lana said. "It was pretty awesome. I was tearing up as I was trying to chug my way to the finish line as well."
Jack's efforts have raised $1,295 to date, surpassing the goal of $1,000, and the campaign can be found on the BC Cancer Foundation under Lana's name, or through this link.
"We're super proud of him," she added. "He's a pretty amazing little kid. He's just very caring and he just, he wanted to do something."
