A 10-year-old Salmon Arm boy inspired by Terry Fox ran 14 miles and raised nearly $1,600 for cancer research – Salmon Arm News

A 10-year-old boy wanted to follow in Terry Fox’s footsteps and raised nearly $1,600 for the BC Cancer Foundation by running from Salmon Arm to Enderby.

Jack McNeil, a 5th grade student at Bastion Elementary, was so inspired when he met Terry Fox that he decided he had to do something to make a difference.

“Jack knows both victims and survivors of cancer,” explains Lana McNeil, Jack’s mother. “So he wanted to do something like Terry had done and raise money to help people affected by cancer.”

Jack’s original idea was to run from Salmon Arm to Vancouver, but his parents Lana and Sgt. Murray McNeil, of the Sicamous RCMP, was able to help guide him to a more achievable goal.

They opted for a more reasonable route of 14 miles from Salmon Arm to Enderby.

It was decided that Lana would run alongside Jack for safety and that they would split the run over two days.

“I said it would probably be easier for you and of course your mother to do it in two different sprints,” she explained.

On Friday, November 8, Jack and his mother started the first 7-mile leg of their route, from Shuswap General Hospital to Mellors Country Supermarket.

“The first day the weather was perfect,” she remembers. “It was dry, the asphalt was dry and it was a little bit on the colder side, so it worked really well.”

Jack colored his own T-shirt with the text ‘Jack run 4 Cancer Research’ on the front and ‘BC Cancer Foundation’ on the back.

When they ran the second stage the next day, Saturday, November 9, the weather was not so cooperative.

“When we started at Mellors… we got out of the truck and it was already raining,” she said. “We started off wet and by the time we got to Sutherland’s bakery in Enderby we were both just soaked.”

Still, the rainy weather didn’t dampen Jack’s mood.

“At the bakery in Enderby we had friends and family, one of his little friends also came there to cheer him on and we had Enderby RCMP there too,” she said. “When he saw the flashing lights, he literally left me in the dust.”

“He said, OK mom, I’m running,” she added. “And he just sprinted.”

Lana said Jack didn’t train much for running because he already had pretty good cardio fitness from hockey and competitive swimming.

When planning the run, they researched the easiest way to raise money for cancer research as part of the run and the BC Cancer Foundation responded quickly.

“I reached out to a number of cancer associations and the BC Cancer Foundation responded to us right away,” she explained.

A representative from the BC Cancer Foundation set them up a donation page.

“It was very easy to do it, and she was very helpful, so we are very grateful for that,” she added.

Lana said her entire family is proud of Jack’s amazing achievement.

“Both my husband and I are very proud, and his sister is very proud of him too.”

She added that they also appreciate the community support Jack has received throughout his journey. They have long since surpassed his original goal of raising $500.

“Initially that was our goal, and we exceeded it before we even started running,” she says. “And when we started running, we surpassed $1,000.”

At the time of writing this article, Jack has raised $1,580 and is hoping to collect a few more donations before running his final 5K this weekend.

The final route runs from Shuswap General Hospital along the Trans-Canada Highway to DeMille’s Farm Market on the west side of Salmon Arm.

“It’s also kind of inspiring for us, because this little guy of ours has set himself a really big challenge,” Lana said. “He kept saying, I’m doing this. I’m going to do it.”

In addition to hockey and a passion for Terry Fox, Jack is also an avid writer.

“He makes a lot of mini comic books, and I probably don’t know how many stacks of his books he’s made over the years,” she said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen now. It will be as big a surprise to everyone as it is to us, but whatever he comes up with, like the run, we will be there to support him through it and help him achieve the goal.”