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Jack Taunton was appointed to the Order of Canada in June for his work, which included serving to discovered The Ontario Chronicle Run and Vancouver Marathon.
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Printed Oct 24, 2024 • Final up to date Oct 25, 2024 • 4 minute learn
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FILE PHOTO: Dr. Jack Taunton, pictured in 2023, is a pioneer of sports activities medication and co-founder of the Ontario Chronicle Run. Photograph by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
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Because the story goes, Dr. Jack Taunton and Phil Knight have been buddies from working marathons collectively, and Knight requested Taunton if he needed to get entangled in a little bit working shoe firm he was beginning up known as Nike.
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Taunton politely declined, saying that he was centered on his medical path.
Robin D’Abreo loves that story. The director of athletics answerable for operations and group assist at UBC, who was a participant on the Canadian nationwide males’s area hockey squad when Taunton was group physician, loves the story as a result of, as he says, “He made the right call. Jack’s done more. That’s the funny thing. He’s done more in terms of his impact.”
Taunton was appointed to the Order of Canada in June due to an unlimited resume that included working with groups at eight Olympic Video games in addition to co-ordinating the medical portion of Rick Hansen’s Man in Movement World Tour and serving to discovered The Ontario Chronicle Run and Vancouver Marathon. He died on Wednesday after a battle with most cancers. Taunton was 77.
“You think about that story and the potential for what that would mean for someone jumping into Nike at its infancy, but then you look at what he’s accomplished,” D’Abreo stated. “That’s where I go with how he’s influenced my life and my intention. People like him have sowed the seeds for what it means to give back and what it means to have your experience and your expertise affect those around you. That’s been really been a guiding influence for me.”
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The UBC Thunderbirds are mourning the passing of Dr. Jack Taunton.
An enormous within the area of 🇨🇦 sports activities & train medication & UBC Sports activities Corridor of Famer. Taunton’s award successful assist of athlete well being on campus & globally was exceptionally impactful.
📣: https://t.co/OWwh7gqKSj
— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) October 24, 2024
These public successes are effectively documented, D’Abreo factors out. That record of issues Taunton did quietly, behind the scenes, might by no means been precisely totalled, D’Abreo says.
He factors to personal his spouse Dana Anderson D’Abreo. She performed on the nationwide girls’s area hockey group. The couple moved right here to coach and agreed to remain in Vancouver once they have been executed enjoying.
Dana is a physiotherapist. When she began her observe right here, Taunton instantly began speaking it up and referring shoppers there.
“She had a three-week waiting list within a couple of months as a new therapist in a new community,” D’Abreo stated. “It was mind boggling.
“That was the thing that was unseen with him, that how inspiring he was to so many people and how he motivated them to do what they could within their own sphere of influence. You’d see what he was doing into addition to what he was more publicly accomplishing and you’d go away from conversations with him thinking ‘there’s no way that I’m doing enough. I need to be able to do more.’
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“I feel such a strong connection to him. So does my wife. But, honestly, those stories are exceptionally common when it comes to him. Everyone you talk to about him has a story about how he impacted them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked into a random clinic for treatment and there’s a picture of Jack Taunton on the wall.”
The husband and spouse group of Dr. Doug and Diane Clement based the Solar Run in 1985 with Taunton. Requested concerning the Knight story, Doug stated merely that Taunton was all the time “selfless.”
“He didn’t have any desire to do something for his own ego,” he continued. “He was genuinely interested in driving towards goals and dragging people along with him who grew and matured and found confidence in that journey. That’s the sort of guy he was.
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“He was just so enthusiastic and positive and aggressive about getting knowledge. He wanted to get to new things and was constantly curious. He was remarkable and being a part of his journey was always something that was totally positive and totally energetic. He wouldn’t take any situation as being a defeat. He would find a way around it. He was just an amazing guy.”
Taunton, who spent 40 years as a doctor, researcher and educator on the College of B.C., spoke to Postmedia in September 2023 a few 7 Over 70 Award he was being honoured with. He admitted on the time he was battling bladder most cancers.
“I don’t have any power, or very little, on my right side,” Taunton stated then. “It’s because the immunotherapy drug I’ve been taking to stop the spread of cancer from my bladder also attacks my nerves.”
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He needed to overcome adversity from early age. At 6, he contracted polio, leading to paralysis of his proper arm and leg. After he recovered from that illness, a automobile struck him whereas he was on a motorbike journey, fracturing his foot and leg.
“I couldn’t do any sports until I was 14,” Taunton stated. “When I got out of my cast, I went crazy. I played football, soccer, and then I started running. Eventually, I was competing in marathons.”
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