Fire chief plans to run Terry Fox run in full equipment

While most people opt for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt when they head out on a run, Salisbury Fire Chief, Bradley MacLeod has settled on less conventional attire.

“I’m going to be wearing the turnout pants, the jacket, the helmet and our air tanks,” said MacLeod.

The only part of his outfit that might relate to the average runner, is his running shoes since he will be leaving his turnout boots back at the fire station.

With all his gear, he says he’ll be adding about 30-40 lbs to his body weight.

“Oh it’s going to make it a whole lot more challenging,” he said.

“Normally, in the summertime, we went to Summerside this year for our Firefit competition and that’s a grueling two minutes, this could be closer to 10 minutes or more for the run.”

Gearing up for a good cause, the chief is doing all of this in support of this year's Terry Fox Run.

“I decided I was going to run it a couple of weeks ago and then I said ‘you know what, to help raise money I’m going to do it with the gear and kind of almost auction off pieces of the gear to help raise money,’” he said.

He set the goal at just $400, which he surpassed in about eight hours.

In total, MacLeod will be running 2 kilometres and his goal is no stopping and no walking, which inspires Salisbury’s Mayor, Rob Campbell.

“Our recreation director signed me up for the 5 kilometre run, so I feel like I’m not doing enough when I see Chief Brad doing what he’s doing with the equipment,” laughed Campbell.

Adding, “the more that we can let everybody know about Terry’s story and get the younger people involved, you know, us older generation remembers Terry, but it’s important that we tell Terry’s story to the younger generation and I think by what Chief Brad is doing it’s a fun, engaging way to let people know the fun, important cause that this is.”

Salisbury is holding its Terry Fox run on Sunday at 1 p.m. and people have the option of doing a 2 km loop around the Wetland trail or a 5 km run around the former village boundary.

“For us, Terry Fox has always been something very meaningful,” said Campbell.

“We had Fred Fox in our community, Terry’s brother, a couple of years ago. It was very very personal for many of us to be able to talk to him and basically thank him for his family and his brother for what he’s done.”

Both Campbell and MacLeod say the day is about raising awareness and giving back to a disease that touches so many people.

“I just wanted to bring more awareness and recognition not the Terry Fox run this weekend and like I said, get more support from the community to come participate,” said MacLeod.

At this point, he says there might even be a few other volunteer firefighters who run along side him in gear.

“Cancer effects all of us. Cancer effects firefighters,” he said.

“We’ve lost firefighters due to cancer, we have firefighters that are battling cancer and our family members -- cancer is a big thing. So anything we can do to help eliminate cancer.”

By Monday afternoon, MacLeod has raised $550. He says if he raises $1,000 ahead of the weekend, he will run with a mask hooked up to the air pack that will be strapped to his back.

A link to his fundraiser can be found here.

“I encourage the community to get out and cheer Brad on as he’s doing his event,” said Campbell.

“At the same time, if you can’t run, that’s okay. Walk, bicycling, anything you can do just to get out and show Terry support. We still believe in his marathon of hope and we’re going to continue his dream until we cure cancer.”

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