Sunday was Day 63 of Jackson Charron-Okerlund’s Cross Canada Marathon, and the 25 year-old and navigator Rob Ingram ended the event in Arnprior.
His mission, Coast-to-Coast for a Cure, is now wending through the Ottawa Valley, replicating Terry Fox’s original Marathon of Hope from 1980.
At a clip of approximately fifty kilometres a day Jackson will reach Petawawa (a town where he spent the first eight years of his life) on Tuesday or Wednesday and the Manitoba resident plans to complete his Cross Canada Marathon in July in BC.
Jackson’s goal is a modest 50 thousand dollars, of which 35k has been collected- and a cheque is planned to be presented to the Terry Fox Foundation in August.
Jackson Charron-Okerlund provides daily updates for subscribers on TikTok, which you can follow at “crosscanadajax” (#crosscanadajax #poweredbytelus #coast2coast #cancersucks #inspired)
It has been some years since any Canadian attempted the challenge Terry Fox initiated some 43 years ago.
Steve Fonyo first succeeded with a coast-to-coast marathon, Journey for Lives, in 1985, as the amputee completed the distance in 425 days. Fonyo was awarded an Order of Canada for his efforts, but the accolade was revoke in 2009 after his frequent legal troubles. Steve Fonyo died in February of 2022.
By Rick Stow
