Mildred Smith of St. Stephen joined the estimated 3.6 million people in the 44th annual Terry Fox Run in about 600 communities across Canada on September 15. At 101, she can very likely claim bragging rights as the oldest.
      "One hundred and one. The 23rd of December, I will be 102," she says. "I can't walk very far but, with help, I can walk a few blocks," she said before setting out, with Deputy Mayor Ghislaine Wheaton and St. Croix MLA Kathy Bockus on either side, from the starting point at Neighbourhood Works for the St. Stephen run.
      This was four days before Premier Blaine Higgs called a provincial general election for Monday, October 21. Bockus presented Smith with a certificate congratulating her on her achievement by taking part in the Terry Fox Run.
      Terry Fox from Port Coquitlam, B.C., lost his right leg to cancer at 18. On April 12, 1980, he dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland and Labrador and set out on his Marathon of Hope, aiming to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. On September 1, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres or 3,339 miles, he was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ont., due to cancer that appeared in his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981, at 22.
      People from across Canada and elsewhere, united in grief, held the first Terry Fox Run in September of 1981 to commemorate the Marathon of Hope and continue raising money for cancer research. Before Terry Fox died, donations had topped $23 million, beating his goal of a dollar for each person in Canada. Since then, the total has passed $900 million, channeled through the Terry Fox Foundation.
      Mildred Smith was born and raised on the Swede Road in Little Ridge, now part of the Municipal District of St. Stephen, daughter of Martin and Christina Madsen. She became a nurse and met her husband from Oklahoma. "I lived in the States for more 30 years, but I moved back here in '78," and finished her working career in Calais. One of her daughters graduated from St. Stephen High School.
      Smith remembers Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope in 1980. "Oh yes, because I was living up in Milltown then," she says. She has taken part in "several" Terry Fox Runs but not for the past two years. She has lived in Lonicera Hall on Union Street for the past four years.
      She credits Carol Baker, local organizer of the Terry Fox Run in St. Stephen, for talking her into signing up this year. Wheaton explains that Baker attended a meeting at Lonicera Hall where the idea arose.
      Smith did not complete the whole course of several kilometres through St. Stephen, opting to turn back after going part way down Elizabeth Street.
      How does she do it at all at 101? "Well, I thank God every day. He gives me the ability to move my legs," she says.