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OT: Terry Fox - The Greatest Inspiration In Human History (please read)

Perennial

Perennial

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Jun 27, 2020
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As someone who grew up in Canada during the '80's, I was aware of Terry Fox...

Curly-haired Canadian with one leg who ran across Canada to raise money for cancer research

But it wasn't until a couple of years ago when I read his Wikipedia page that I came to fully appreciate not only the magnitude of what he had attempted, and the amount of sheer determination required to see it through, but also the impact he had not just in Canada, but around the world...

Fox's Marathon Of Hope was decades before social media, so there was very little fanfare or publicity when he dipped his prosthetic foot into the Atlantic ocean near St. John's, Newfoundland and then set out on his journey across Canada with the goal of running the equivalent of a marathon (26 miles) each day until he reached the Pacific ocean...

But slowly his story became national news, and eventually the streets of the towns and cities he passed through were flooded with supporters cheering him on...

This determined, stubborn, truculent 22 year old with one leg inspired an entire nation in a way that the world had never seen before...

Along the way he was met by Bobby Orr who gave him a cheque for $25,000. Fox considered this the highlight of his journey

His initial goal was to raise 1 million dollars for cancer research, but as his story garnered more attention that goal became 24 million ($1 per Canadian)

Today The Terry Fox Run - which takes place in countries all over the world - is the world's largest one-day event fundraiser for cancer research, and as of January 2018 over 750 million has been raised in his name

What a legacy!


I teared up while writing this post, just as I do whenever I read his Wikipedia page... I can't help it... when I think about what he was able to achieve in the short time he was here, and the positive impact he had on our world that is still being felt 40+ years after his death, I just become overwhelmed with emotion. He's arguably the most inspirational person in history...

I'm embarrassed it took me so long to appreciate what that young man did, and so I just wanted to share his story with others who may not yet appreciate it either...

Please take the time to read his Wikipedia page if you haven't already done so, it really is an incredible story worth knowing...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox_Run

Click to read more...
 
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Perennial

Perennial

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leafsfan5 said:
The definition of a hero
Click to expand...

BUiwuF6CIAAnxlL.jpg
 
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The Panther

The Panther

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Mar 25, 2014
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Can I also add, as an aside, that while Canadians generally don't "do" statues of a lot of people (again, unlike the USA, where there seems to be a statue of a guy on a horse in every park), I am really pleased with the wonderful Terry Fox statue outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario:
Terry_Fox.jpg


It's classy and well done, and also I have fond early-childhood memories of stopping to see it in 1982 (not long after it went up, when I was 6 years old) on my family's first visit back to Ontario from Alberta.
 
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Chairman Maouth

Chairman Maouth

Retired Staff
Apr 29, 2009
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Comox Valley
A memoir about Terry that I wrote in April, 2006, published by Black Press Media.

Marathon of Enlightenment
​
It was the summer of 1979 in southwestern British Columbia and I was living life to the fullest, and getting little of substance accomplished. I drove a 1960 Corvette, and of course I had the pretty girlfriend which was mandatory for any guy who drove a Corvette. Her father was a doctor and the family lived in an oceanfront home on Bedwell Bay, which was a smaller arm of Indian Arm, which was a smaller arm of Burrard Inlet. Every day I would take the winding, tree-shrouded Ioco Road from Port Moody to Bedwell Bay to see my girlfriend. I was a young man and I worked, but not all that much and not all that hard. I was most concerned with doing things that were self-gratifying, and I was accomplishing that goal to near perfection every day. Truly impacting anyone’s life was the furthest thing from my mind.

As I would travel along Ioco Road, I would sometimes see a young man running, a jogger out getting some exercise, I thought. He was around the same age as I, with curly-brown hair, and looked quite typical. He would often be wearing grey or beige shorts and a similarly-coloured T-shirt, and he ran along the shaded sidewalks of Ioco Road with what appeared to be a single-minded determination. I never honked my horn at him, but I’m quite certain that if I had he would have hardly taken notice. But there was something very unique about this young man that was readily apparent in that he made no effort to cover it up. At some point in his life he had received an above-the-knee amputation of his right leg and was running on a prosthetic. He did not run with ease. As a matter of fact, it all looked quite uncomfortable for him, but there he would be, nearly every day, running along Ioco Road with his shuffling, half-step gait, for reasons I could not imagine. He was a curiosity to me; why would he be doing something which appeared to take so much effort when he could be, like me, sitting on a beach and drinking beer with a pretty girl? As I said, I had no idea.

The summer of 1979 passed, the leaves on the maple trees changed colour and abandoned their elders, and the traditional soggy Lower Mainland winter came and went. In April of 1980, the blooming of the Pacific dogwood signaled that spring had finally arrived. But there was something more that was enriching the air of the cockpit of my sports car than just the honey-smell of dogwood blossoms. News reports were beginning to trickle in on the airwaves about a unique event which was taking place along the highways of eastern Canada.

Terry Fox was born in 1958 in Winnipeg to Betty and Rolly Fox. The family moved to Vancouver when Terry was quite young, eventually settling in Port Coquitlam. Terry was a cancer survivor and for lack of a better metaphor, decided to make lemonade from a very big lemon he received in 1977 when he was told he had cancer and must have his right leg amputated. He then decided to undertake a monumental task — to run across Canada on one leg in order to raise money for cancer research. Nearly thirty years later, there are few Canadians who have not heard of Terry’s “Marathon of Hope”. Then, after completing 5,373 kilometers of his intended goal and like a champion thoroughbred that runs until its heart explodes, Terry’s heart exploded on national television when he told all of Canada that on the advice of his doctors, he had to withdraw from his Marathon of Hope and return home. Cancer had returned to Terry’s body, this time to both of his lungs.

At first, I had no reason whatsoever to believe that it was the same young man I had seen hobbling along Ioco Road so many times the summer before. As a matter of fact, I did not even consider it. The young man I had seen running was furthest from my mind and I had not seen him in months. Then I saw the newscast along with Terry’s photo and my world became bathed in enlightenment.

It was him.

When I had seen this curly-haired kid running along Ioco Road, he actually had a plan and a method to my perception of his madness. He had not been running simply to stay in shape for himself; he was running to improve the lives of others, and that was why I saw him shuffling along Ioco Road so many times during the summer of 1979.

I last saw Terry when I was working at the Brass Rail Pub in Coquitlam. He was world famous by then, his Marathon of Hope was over, and his cancer was now terminal. About a dozen of his friends had brought him from the Royal Columbian Hospital to the Brass Rail for refreshments.

I approached Terry’s table, welcomed him, and introduced myself. He shook my hand, and I seem to remember saying something mundane like, "Good job Terry," or something else which in retrospect seems properly mindless.

Terry was very shy, and simply said in return, “Thanks. Nice to meet you.” I made no mention of how crazy I thought he was all those times I saw him running along Ioco Road while he was preparing to change people's lives. I simply finished work, grabbed a six-pack of beer to go, and hopped into my Corvette and headed back in the direction of Ioco Road.

Shortly afterwards, the body that was both Terry’s biggest obstacle and his biggest reward gave out and he died of cancer on June 28th of 1981. The flesh and blood and bone that Terry was made of had failed him — and despite his perception that he was failing us when he could not continue the Marathon of Hope, he did not fail anyone. I now choose to remember Terry exactly as I first saw him — with no cameras and no entourage and no international television coverage. Just a relatively normal young man running along Ioco Road, dressed in nothing but grey and single-minded determination, and trying to show an ignorant young fool how to prepare to change people’s lives by doing something extraordinary.

April, 2006
Courtenay, BC
 
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Perennial

Perennial

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Terry ran through my town during his Marathon of Hope... I would've been about 6 months old at the time, so I don't remember it...

What I do remember was years later my mom told me that as Terry was passing through our town, she gave him a letter that my sister had written to him...

So, a couple of years ago when I first began to appreciate his story, I Googled Terry and the town I grew up in, and after searching various websites I saw it...

A photo of my mom handing the letter to Terry Fox

Some random person had taken a photo of their meeting and posted it online decades later, and I was lucky enough to find it...

My mom passed away nearly 10 years ago from cancer so I can't ask her about it, but it's a moment in time I'm certainly thankful to be able to look back on
 
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islesmb

islesmb

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Perennial said:
Terry ran through my town during his Marathon of Hope... I would've been about 6 months old at the time, so I don't remember it...

What I do remember was years later my mom told me that as Terry was passing through our town, she gave him a letter that my sister had written to him...

So, a couple of years ago when I first began to appreciate Terry's story, I Googled Terry and the town I grew up in, and after searching various websites I saw it...

A photo of my mom handing the letter to Terry Fox

Some random person had taken a photo of their meeting and posted it online decades later, and I was lucky enough to find it...

My mom passed away nearly 10 years ago from cancer so I can't ask her about it, but it's a moment in time I'm certainly thankful to be able to look back on
Click to expand...

Would love to see the picture if you wouldn't mind sharing it with us here. Lost my mom to cancer too.
 
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