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But as he learned the news alongside his wife in a private room at a É«É«À² hospital, De Lorenzi was thinking about running.

“It’s funny,” De Lorenzi said. “When I had the diagnosis, the first thing I thought about was, ‘Will I ever be able to get back to it?’”

De Lorenzi wasn’t hoping to get back to just any run, though.

Three years ago, Lorenzi set out to run all 10,390 streets in É«É«À². By May of this year, the É«É«À² man had run over 9,800 of the city’s streets, with hopes of completing his goal by the three-year anniversary in August.

But he had to pause his mission this spring when he and his wife visited the emergency room after De Lorenzi started having trouble reading with his left eye. It was this visit to hospital where De Lorenzi learned he had glioblastoma, a brain cancer with a prognosis of one to two years.

“I’m under no illusions,” he said, “I’m on a time clock, so to speak.”

For nearly three years before, De Lorenzi would take the TTC to a different part of the city from his home in midtown about five to six mornings a week, clocking in an average of 14 kilometres each run. He’d always go on his own, and rain and snow would almost never keep him home.

“I was running basically the same route every day, so I thought I needed a new challenge,” De Lorenzi said, adding that he has enjoyed exploring different parts of the city that he grew up in through his morning runs.

Beyond the personal gratification — De Lorenzi says he’d be the fourth person to complete this mammoth goal — the É«É«À² man is using his runs as a way to raise money for Community Music Schools of É«É«À² (CMST), a charity that provides music education to kids ages four to 18 through its schools in Regent Park and Jane and Finch.

“When I got to about 60 or 70 per cent (of my goal), I thought, ‘I need to do something with this,’ ” De Lorenzi explained.  

He said he chose CMST because of his lifelong passion for music, which started when he took piano lessons as a child. (Despite this love of music, De Lorenzi said he doesn’t listen to anything on his runs, for safety reasons.)

Through , De Lorenzi is hoping to raise $10,390, or $1 for every street he runs. As of July, he’s only about $2,000 shy of his goal.

According to Richard Marsella, the executive director of CMST, De Lorenzi’s fundraising will go to fund a year’s worth of music lessons for three to four students.

“It’s not even about the money, although that $10,000 is vital to us,” Marsella said. “This is about human relationships and community.”

Still, Marsella said the school was grateful for De Lorenzi’s support, adding that the campaign was one of the more innovative fundraisers he’s seen in his 15 years with the organization.

“This is Carlo’s journey and only Carlo’s journey,” Marsella said. “He’s doing it his way and I admire the hell out of that.”

The executive director also admires that not even a brain cancer diagnosis will get in the way of De Lorenzi finishing what he sets out to do.

After learning of his diagnosis, De Lorenzi took a break from his regular runs as he went in for surgery to get his tumour removed and started  chemotherapy. But once his oncologist gave him the green light to start exercising again after two weeks of treatment, De Lorenzi was back out on the streets.

“I feel good and I feel like I can run,” he said, adding that he’s shortened his runs to between seven and 12 kilometres to avoid overdoing it. He’s also been more open to friends joining him since his surgery.

While he doesn’t think he’ll finish his goal by the three-year anniversary in August, De Lorenzi hopes to finish in September, with a finish line celebration outside the Regent Park CMST.

That May day when De Lorenzi learned of his cancer diagnosis might have been his worst.

“But I’ve had some of the best days in my life in the last few weeks,” he said, “because now it’s all about quality, not quantity.”