Four friends plan to run from Montreal to Washington, D.C. for cancer research

[The Whitehouse Runners from left to right: Aidan Yardley-Jones, Akshay Grover, Marc-André Blouin & Matthieu Blouin / Terry Fox Foundation]

These runners are going the extra mile for cancer research.

Four friends, who met on their high school cross-country team, are trying to run all the way from Montreal to Washington, D.C., to raise money for The Terry Fox foundation.

Aidan Yardley-Jones, Akshay Grover, Marc-André Blouin and Matthieu Blouin drew inspiration from the iconic Canadian, who ran the Marathon of Hope with an artificial leg.

The quartet call themselves the “White House Runners” and plan to do the 998 kilometer run this summer, they wrote on their campaign page.

The run is estimated to take 23 days, with the group updating the supporters every step of the way through their Facebook page. By the end of it, they hope to raise $40,000 for the foundation that has raised more than $650 million since its inception.

Back in 2014, Akshay organized and ran a fundraiser that went from Montreal to Toronto, and was able to raise $14,000 for Childhood Cancer Canada, reports Canadian Running Magazine. He’s doing the run to D.C. “to push my limits and see what I’m capable of.”

Like Akshay, each of his teammates has their own reason that they are participating in the run.

“For me, my grandfather is a huge inspiration,” Aidan told Canadian Running. “He used to be a marathon runner but can’t anymore and I’m also running for a guy in my class who’s recovering from cancer.”

Matthieu, who is a science student on top of being a runner, finds the meshing of the two worlds to be something he needed. And the last member, Marc-André, is doing it for family who have been affected by cancer.