'Laps for Leo' running event to raise money for Cape Breton boy fighting cancer

Run raises funds for N.S. boy battling cancer A Cape Breton charity run is raising money for a young boy fighting cancer.

Petersfield Provincial Park in Westmount, N.S. will be busy on Saturday when Cape Breton runners 'go the distance' in support of a 7-year-old boy.

"My goal is 50 kilometers. That’s 28 laps,” said participant Catherine Farrow.

For Farrow, that's a big goal considering she started running only a year and a half ago.

However, the first-ever Laps for Leo was something she couldn't help but go all out for.

"I understand this really well. It's something that I went through with my father as well, traveling for this type of thing."

The event is a fundraiser for seven-year-old Leo Knott, who has been battling cancer for some years now.

People will complete as many loops as they can of the nearly two-kilometer park, with the proceeds going to supporting Leo's treatment - which could mean as many as twenty trips back and forth to Halifax.

Maryam Mosheni is among the participants who know Leo and his family.

"The biggest struggle that day will be how tired my legs are, so how lucky are we?” Mosheni said. "I think a lot of us feel entirely helpless with what Leo and his family are going through, so it's a way that we can try to feel a little bit helpful."

Tammy Quinn is Knott’s aunt. Her goal is to complete 32 laps - one for each round of treatment that Leo has had - and to help him reach his own goal.

"I'm really excited that Saturday, he'll be coming,” she said. "He's excited that we've done some run training, and he's going to come and do at least one lap.”

For those who don't know the family but want to help, it will be a chance to meet Leo too.

"He's had a few of these celebrity moments over the past year, puck drops and things like that,” Quinn said. “But then, he kind of embraces it all."

Laps for Leo will run 24 hours, all day and all night, but it's nothing compared to the long and draining haul Leo and his family have been going through.

"Our thoughts are, 'If he can do 32 treatments so far this year, then we can do 32 laps’,” Quinn said.

The first of what will be hundreds of laps for Leo start at 9 a.m. Saturday.

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