More than 18,000 residents of Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces joined in the Terry Fox Run on November 29 to raise funds for cancer research and treatment activities.

The annual event, held by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, the Consulate General of Canada and the HCM City Union of Friendship Organisations, took place at the Phu My Hung area in District 7. This is the 19th year the event has been organized in Vietnam.

People joined the 17th Terry Fox Charity Run in Ho Chi Minh City in 2013.

Participants were from all social strata such as children, students, employees of organisations and businesses, and foreigners. Since the run was a community activity, they could walk, cycle or roller skate along the 5km distance, organisers said.

The Terry Fox Run commemorates Canadian cancer activist Terry Fox, who made a Marathon of Hope run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research in 1980 after losing his leg to osteosarcoma.

Since the first run in Canada in 1981, the event has taken place annually in more than 60 countries with millions of participants, becoming the world’s biggest fund-raising campaign for cancer research and treatment.

The 18th run in Vietnam in 2014 attracted 16,500 participants and raised 1.3 billion VND (57,200 USD), which was earmarked for the project of early detection and diagnosis of oral cancer in Vietnam in the two following years.

Source: VNA