Domingos run 'as a family' in Vancouver Sun Run to honour memory of young man
Credit to Author: Susan Lazaruk| Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2019 23:31:26 +0000
For the Domingo family, the 2020 Vancouver Sun Run will be bittersweet.
The Vancouver family is preparing to register — registration for the April 19 race opens Friday — for the April 19 run, and they are excited to be take part in the 10K run as they did in 2019, to honour the memory of Kristian Domingo.
In 2016, Kristian, athletic, big-hearted and family-oriented, had rallied his dad, mom, two older brothers, a future sister-in-law and his own sweetheart, Bailey Dagg, to run in the 2016 Sun Run, despite being treated for cancer.
“This is really the story of this young man who did not survive cancer but he was able to get us all together for something we could all do,” said his mother, Teresa Domingo. “I was really glad he was able to encourage us.”
She and her husband Emmanuel and sons Lukas, 25, and Josh, 30, and Josh’s wife, Kathleen, plus Kristian’s girlfriend Bailey Dagg are going to start training soon for the 2020 run.
“Last year we ran it as a family and this year we’re running it again as a family,” said Teresa from her Vancouver home.
And she wants to share her late son’s story in in the hope that it could help encourage others who may need motivation to run in the 10K.
Kristian, who wasn’t feeling well before his high school graduation in June 2014, put off going to the doctor’s until the day after the ceremony. And the news was devastating: He had a rare pediatric cancer.
Kristian Domingo, who died from cancer in 2016 at age 20. His family will take part in the 2020 Vancouver Sun Run in honour of him.
Childhood rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer in which malignant cells form in muscle tissue, has a better survival rate for those aged one to nine years old. Kristian was 18.
The news put on hold his plans to enter veterinarian school at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where he had also earned a sports scholarship for the Huskies football team. He instead had to receive aggressive treatment to battle the disease.
Kristian, who was studying at the University of B.C., learned after a six-month period of remission that the disease had returned. But he was intent on running in the 2016 Sun Run with his loved ones.
During the run, “He struggled. He had a tough time breathing. It was especially hard going up the hill near the Burrard Street Bridge,” said Teresa.
She will always treasure watching Lukas run almost to the finish without crossing it and doubling back to accompany Kristian for the final couple of kilometres, so the brothers could cross the line together.
“That encourages me to want to enter and complete the race,” said Teresa, who is head of the Kristian Domingo Foundation, whose goal it is to raise awareness about adolescent young adults who deal with a cancer prognosis. The Domingos hope to make the Sun Run an annual family affair.
Race director Tim Hopkins said they’re encouraging youth and teams to register for the race and to start making plans to train with a group when they start up in January.
Since it began in 1985, 1.1 million unique runners have registered for the fun run, which boasts Canada’s largest start line. Last year 43,000 people signed up.
“It’s all about getting people active,” he said. “It’s really about participating, it’s not about getting past the finish line the fastest.”
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