Running across Canada: for many of us, Terry Fox is the first name that comes to mind. Before he died of cancer in 1981, Fox made himself a legend by taking on the challenge of running across country to raise awareness and money for cancer research. He covered 5,373 kilometres in 143 days on the road.
Now meet Dr. Riley Senft, who is in the midst of attempting that same unimaginable feat — using two legs to conquer Canada and cancer.
“Terry Fox was an incredible person. He essentially said, ‘What is the hardest thing for me to do? Run? Okay then I’ll run across Canada,’” Riley said in an email interview.
“Terry had one leg, he had cancer, and he didn’t have access to the GPS or social media or any of the other technology that has evolved since he ran that I have access to and yet he managed to capture the heart of our nation and leave an incredible legacy. I don’t have cancer, I have two legs, I have a bigger support vehicle, and I still find this a huge challenge.”
People run marathons all the time. And the 42.195 kilometres to cross the finish line is viewed as a huge test to how far the body and mind can be pushed.
Riley is back in B.C. and scheduled to run through Langley this afternoon (Oct. 4).
He has clocked roughly 60 kilometres a day, well over one marathon every 24 hours.
His body is being beaten and the pavement gives no mercy.
“I still have blisters all over my feet and I have given up on the idea that I’ll ever be blister-free during this run. I’ve learned how to minimize them as much as possible but in the beginning I found myself in hospital in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, because of infected blisters that had me off my feet for two days. My legs have gotten used to the mileage but I had hamstring and calf issues in the beginning that I had to see physiologists for along the way. The recent heat wave was brutal and I was drinking over 10 litres of fluid a day.”
But despite the grind, Riley says it’s all worth it to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. His charity is called Step into Action and his goal is to raise $1 million during his run.
“I’m doing this because I’m tired of prostate cancer having such a large impact in my life and I want to raise prostate cancer awareness so that men know when they should be getting checked and so that they don’t fear the digital rectal exam because it’s not a big deal at all.
“My grandfather died of prostate cancer, my father currently has prostate cancer, a number of close family friends have prostate cancer, and odds are either myself or my brother will get prostate cancer. I hate prostate cancer and this is my way of going to war against it.”
His heart was and is in the right place, but when Riley’s father Rod first heard of what his son wanted to do, it was a shock.
“It was the sheer enormity of it,” Rod told Black Press. “He was in the worst shape of his life. He was three and a half years into his medical residency living in Winnipeg. In winter you don’t get the chance to go out and train.”
Riley may have been out of shape when he started his run this past May, but his family knew that no matter what the circumstances were, if Riley said he was going to run across the country, that was exactly what he was going to do.
“When he sets his mind to a goal, I’m confident he will achieve it,” says his proud father, who raised his family on the North Shore, a place he still calls home.
“When I first heard about it, I thought he was nuts. It’s an ambitious thing to do. Of course you worry,” sister Lauren chimes in.
Riley and his brother Derek are no strangers to tackling Canada from east to west. Nearly 10 years ago, separately, they both rode their bikes across the country for Habitat for Humanity.
“Running has always been Riley’s passion and running across Canada was something floating around, he would always consider it,” says Derek.
In order to stay sane, Riley listens to audio books and plays mind games to trick his head into thinking there is less mileage than there really is. He’s also got a crew including friend Michael Downie and David Bell to help him keep in touch with others, spread the word on prostate cancer and make sure he can achieve what he has set out to do.
“Raising awareness is just as important because if you can detect prostate cancer early in stage one, there is over a 90-per-cent cure rate,” Riley says.
Vancouver Prostate Centre’s clinician-scientist and urologic surgeon Dr. Martin Gleave applauds Riley’s quest.
“I think it’s a great illustration of the length of which people will go to get a message out to raise awareness. I think that in general the awareness of cancers, particularly in prostate, has increased.”
Gleave and Riley both agree that advocates of breast cancer awareness have done a phenomenal job in delivering early detection and prevention messages to the public. And it’s Riley’s mission to make prostate cancer an issue on the forefront of men’s minds.
“If I could get prostate cancer the same sort of recognition that breast cancer has among females then maybe I could feel like I’ve done enough to raise awareness but we are a long way away from that point,” Riley says.
After the run, Riley intends to head back to Winnipeg to finish his residency. He plans to return to the North Shore to practice.
Follow Riley’s journey by visiting www.stepintoaction.ca.
