Teacher’s cancer inspires students and teachers to walk and run

By Ian Howarth, October 10th, 2012

Lindsay Place High School student James Liakakos was doubly inspired for the school’s annual Terry Fox Run 5 km walk and run held last week. He was participating with his former camp counsellor and lifeguard, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, in mind. Liakakos, along with his fellow LPHS students and teachers, also had French teacher Pascal Leblanc as motivation to support both the Terry Fox Foundation and the CIBC Run for the Cure, an organization that supports breast cancer patients and survivors.
Leblanc, a 10-year LPHS teacher and French department head, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late summer but was still teaching before undergoing surgery last week. “Pascal is trying to look at it (cancer) in a positive way,” said friend and colleague Catherine Falmagne, who teaches social studies and science at the school. “Despite the diagnosis, she was in school in September tying up loose ends for her replacement teacher. Pascal is a problem-solver, always willing to help others. And now we have a chance to help her. The kids have really rallied behind her.” Students like James Liakakos and Rachel Gilmartin, who walked and ran the 5 km with the entire LPHS student body. Gilmartin was running for her grandmother who died of breast cancer. “My mom went through a lot when her mother was sick. It makes me feel good to help people,” said the grade 11
student, who is in the school’s Genesis program.
LPHS teacher Melissa Hunter, who along with other staff members, helped put the school’s 800 students out on the sidewalks and streets of Pointe-Claire last week, said that students and staff raised almost $10,000 for both causes. “We had everyone in the school involved,” said Hunter. “Including our leadership students and homeroom classes who had fundraisers of their own. When you factor in getting the Pointe-Claire public security and police helping out with safety for the walk, the LPHS Home and School and staff supervision, it was a real community effort.”
Since Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope, which raised over $24 million for cancer research, schools across Canada have participated annually every September 27 for the Terry Fox National School Run Day. Many of the Lester B Pearson School Board’s 39 elementary and 12 high schools have had a long history with the Terry Fox Run, starting with John Rennie High School, which pioneered the Terry Fox Run in the early 1980s. Since Terry Fox’s death in 1981, his foundation has raised more than $600 million for cancer research.
The CIBC Run for the Cure hosted its 16th annual in Quebec on September 30, raising $2.2 million. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s CIBC Run for the Cure is the largest national fundraising effort organized by volunteers and kicks off October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.n