Two weeks before eight-year-old Luke Johnson died in hospice, he "emphatically" told his parents he wanted to finish what his hero Terry Fox had started — to run across Canada, said his dad Dan.

It only made sense that shortly after the Port Dover, Ont., boy died last July of a brain disease while receiving palliative care, Dan and Luke's mom Jill started planning a way to honour him and his dream in their own way.

They also wanted to give back to their community by raising money for a new hospice to serve Norfolk and Haldimand counties.

"I think we pulled it off," said Dan.

This summer, in a project called Live Like Luke Canada Crossing , Dan cycled from Vancouver to Port Dover with Jill and their two other kids Hosanna, 12, and Pearce, 11, encouraging him from an RV. It took them

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