Villanova runs in memory of former student

October 5, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte
A special day on the Villanova College calendar year after year, the 2016 Terry Fox Run was a little closer to the hearts of the school’s students and staff.
The highly successful annual run, held Friday around the campus in King City, was in memory of Giuseppina Gurreri, whose life was taken by cancer after her tenure at Villanova.
Giuseppina passed away from a long battle with colon cancer last November, at the age of 21. Diagnosed at the age of 16, she was in her Grade 10 year at Villanova at the time.
“She ran her first Terry Fox Run in Grade 9, but by the time it came around again in a duration of a year, her life changed a great deal,” said Giuseppina’s sister, Adrianna.
In total, she went through 48 rounds of chemotherapy over the course of five years. She spent roughly 128 days during that time undergoing chemo, with over 300 days spent overnight in the hospital.
“You can only imagine being a teenager and having to deal with these things most will never face in a lifetime,” said Adrianna. “This is who we run for – people like my sister.”
Despite the battle she faced, Giuseppina’s brother, Alfonso, said his sister was “as positive as she could be in the situation she was in.”
“She never let the fact that she had cancer stop her from being a normal teen,” said Alfonso. “Almost every nurse or doctor at the hospital knew her by name because of her positive attitude and friendliness.”
When she had the opportunity, Giuseppina became a face for Villanova’s Terry Fox Run, which has become one of the top schools in Ontario in terms of funds raised year after year. Over an 11-year history, the school has managed to raise over $300,000 for cancer research.
Guiseppina would speak annually at Villanova’s run.
“Something my sister said at a run a few years back was, if you break up the word cancer, the word ‘can’ is right there,” said Alfonso. “Our sister has tremendous courage, but couldn’t have done so without the help and support of everyone at Villanova.”
Before the run, the school presented the Gurreri family with a cheque for just under $2,000 raised for Sick Kids Hospital.
“Despite her struggles, she always made herself available for the Terry Fox Run,” said Stuart Stanbury, co-chair of the athletic department. “Sometimes she would send video footage, or be the starter for the race, but I think everyone that was here when she came and gave her first speech for Terry Fox remembers that day a little more vividly than others.”