MEDIA RELEASE: 11 September 2019 – R00143
When Meera Mahmud first took part in the Mississauga Terry Fox Run with her family more than a decade ago, she had no idea how far her admiration for Fox would take her.
At the time, she had two aunts and a grandmother all battling cancer. The Brock Health Sciences graduate student has since channeled her passion for fighting the disease into research at the University, which will host this year’s St. Catharines Terry Fox Run Sunday, Sept. 15.
“I never thought, back in Grade 7, that I would actually be conducting research connected to the Terry Fox Research Institute,” says Mahmud. “It’s a very mind-blowing realization.”
She is researching a component of a lung cancer screening model created by her supervisor, Professor of Health Sciences Martin Tammemägi, funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute over a five-year period.
The model predicts a person’s likelihood of developing lung cancer by examining a wide range of information such as the person’s smoking or cancer history, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status and body mass index. Those identified as being at risk of developing lung cancer would be candidates for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung screening.
Mahmud will be one of the speakers talking about her research Sunday before the Terry Fox Run gets started at Brock.
The St. Catharines edition of the run is returning to Brock for the second time in three years because of high water levels and a major construction project, which have both impacted the run’s normal home at Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie.
The event will be based out of Weather Station Field with registration at 9 a.m., followed by opening ceremonies at 9:45 a.m. and the run itself at 10 a.m. It will be followed by a free barbecue and tours of the science labs in which cancer research is being undertaken by Mahmud, Tammemägi and others.
The five-kilometre route can be walked, run or wheeled and the goal this year is to top the $52,000 that was raised in 2018, when about 500 people took part.
Registration for the run is available on the Terry Fox Foundation website, where you can join as an individual, create your own team or join the Brock University team
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.
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