Brian lines up with his team before the Battersea run in 2023. Credit: Brian Whitman.
I was born in Canada before Terry’s first Marathon of Hope and went to an elementary school where the Terry Fox Run was an annual event. Like any Canadian kid he was a hero of mine and I always participated in the Terry Fox runs. Then in my mid-20s, my older brother David was diagnosed with bone cancer – the same cancer, osteosarcoma, that Terry Fox had.
David passed away shortly after that, aged 31, so I immediately knew that just participating in the run was not enough. I started making teams. At this point I was already in the Canadian Armed Forces. So whatever unit I was with, I always took part with teams of my military colleagues.
A few years later, my mother unfortunately passed away from complications with breast cancer, so naturally, that hit me hard.
This has always been something that's close to my heart. If you were to talk to my commanding officers and supervisors from the late 90s, and still today, all of them would say, ‘Oh, yeah. Terry Fox – Whitman is very involved in that.’
Spreading Terry’s message of hope
When I came to the UK for this posting in 2021, as the first Terry Fox Run was coming up, I reached back to Canada and asked what can I do from here? Can I form a team? Can I order T-shirts?
The CEO of the Terry Fox organisation in Canada reached out to me. He said, ‘There's a guy out there, Neil Johnson, who's bringing back the Terry Fox runs in the UK. I'll put you in touch with him.’ I was able to get together with him and I started putting my military team together out here. I was overjoyed that they were doing this, an actual Terry Fox Run in the UK.
Brian and his wife Mandi-Lynn at the 2023 Battersea run. Credit: Brian Whitman.
An international team
For my first year in 2021 I was able to put together a very small team, just Canadian Armed Forces members that were working with me in the local area, both at the base here in Northwood and Ruislip. The following year, I went through my chain of command and got permission to open it up to all of the nations working at NATO. So last year, I had a 54-person team from eight different nations..
This year there are 48 people from many different nations including the US, UK, Denmark, Germany, France and Italy.
I was lucky enough to be invited to an event at Canada House in Trafalgar Square last year where I met a lot of the scientists that work at The Institute of Cancer Research. So I got to tell their stories to all the people here at NATO from all the different nations, and also tell Terry Fox's story to everyone.
And I was able to do the same thing again this year. I ran a gift basket raffle at work where I was able to answer a lot of questions about who Terry Fox was, why we do this run and how long it's been going on. It's been absolutely fantastic. In the last three years I've been posted here, I've raised well over £5,000. My wife Mandi-Lynn regularly does baking at home, which I bring into the office, and I put my little Terry Fox Run donation box there.
The people I’m running for
This year, like years before I will get my number registration bib, and I will write David, which is my brother's name and Mom on there – the people that I'm running for every year.
I know that the scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research are making sure that rates of survival are going to increase, and even more than that, the quality of life of people with cancer can get better. That's my hope.
This year there are even more opportunities to join a Terry Fox Run, as we have a new run taking place in Wrexham. Find the full list of runs here, or you can run, walk or cycle in your local area any distance to help us transform the future of cancer treatment. Let’s finish cancer together.
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