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Run with the Sun: A Long Road for Skin Cancer
Sean McSweeney’s wife was diagnosed with melanoma in December 2003. Thanks to careful screening, her cancer was caught early and successfully treated. But McSweeney, a member of the senior staff team at Mountain Equipment Co-op and an avid long-distance runner, felt he needed to do something to raise awareness around the issue of skin cancer.
For some, that might have meant organizing a 10K fun run, or participating in a marathon. McSweeney went further. He and his colleague Paul Bredin created Run with the Sun – a run of nearly 100 km along Yonge Street, one of the longest streets in the world, from sunrise to sunset on the longest day of the year.
Bredin, too, had a special reason for getting involved. “My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer at about the same time, and was going through chemo when Sean approached me to do the run.”
On June 21, 2004, Bredin and McSweeney set off from Yonge Street in Barrie and over the next 14 hours ran and walked all the way to the foot of Yonge Street in Toronto. They and other intrepid runners have done the same thing each summer solstice since then. “The trick in an event like this is just to keep moving,” says McSweeney. “The other challenge is that, unlike a marathon, you have to eat and drink all the way.” Each runner consumes an estimated 10,000 calories and drinks between 10 and 20 litres of water.
To date, Run with the Sun participants have raised more than $15,000 for skin cancer research. In 2010, the proceeds from the 6th annual event will support the Melanoma and Pigmented Lesion Clinic in the Dermatology Program at Women’s College Hospital. “We felt that Women’s College was a good fit because of the focus on prevention and outreach,” says McSweeney. “Our goal is to create awareness around the great work the Hospital is doing, and to remind people that you can enjoy being outside in the sun safely.”
Women's College Hospital Foundation is pleased to welcome Run with the Sun to our growing family of supporters!
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