Attendance hit-and-miss at Maritime Terry Fox runs 45 years after marathon of hope

Maritimers prepare to lace-up and continue what Terry Fox started 45 years ago.

The Terry Fox Run in Sydney, N.S. usually attracts about 100 people.

However as of Thursday, only a handful of people were signed up for Sunday’s 2025 event at Victoria Park Armouries - and less than $1,000 was pledged in donations.

“The interest from the community wasn’t where I was hoping it would be at this point,” Sydney Terry Fox Run organizer Steve MacNeil said.

MacNeil said, however, that numbers have spiked a bit as the event drew closer but only after he twisted a number of people’s arms.

“I had to do a little more hands-on reaching out to people and do a little social media shaming, to try to give people a little nudge in that direction and fortunately things have turned around quite a bit now,” MacNeil said.

“I just laughed, because it’s typical. Everybody waits until the last minute,” said Candice Paul of Membertou First Nation, who plans to take part in this year’s Terry Fox Run in Sydney.

Still, Paul feels that given Terry Fox’s place as one of the greatest Canadians in history the crowds should be bigger than they are.

“I think it could be more,” she said. “I think it would be really nice to see most of Sydney show up.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Terry Fox Foundation says that nationwide numbers are up because this year marks the 45th anniversary of Terry’s Marathon of Hope, which began in St. John’s, NL in 1980.

The 40th anniversary in 2020 was largely curtailed by COVID-19.

“We are trending about 25 per cent ahead on participation numbers and even higher on fundraising, same time over last year”, said Martha McClew, Chief Operating Officer for the Terry Fox Foundation.

The run on the Confederation Bridge on Sept. 21 has also returned for the first time in a decade, where organizers expect the biggest crowd in the country.

“We actually are going to be capped at 10,000, which capping at 10,000 sounds crazy to me - that’s a huge number of people,” McClew said. “We’re already close to 7,000 and registration actually closes next Thursday.”

Organizers in Sydney would like to see participation in the thousands one day too.

For now though, they have a short and simple wish list for this year.

“Good weather, a couple of hundred people, raining money,” MacNeil said with a laugh.

MacNeil added that the goal on Sunday is to surpass $10,000 in donations, like they did last year.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page