Terry Fox; The Great Canadian Hero

Terry Fox is a Canadian hero.  Why? Lets start with his pre-cancer years.  Terry Fox was born on July 28^th, Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1958.  He played Soccer, Rugby, and Baseball as he grew up, but he loved to play basketball.  His P.E. teacher told him he should take up cross country running, and Terry didn’t want to.  But he respected his teacher very much, and so he decided to sign up.  He continued with cross country and with basketball, eventually winning the Athelete of the Year award at his high school, along with his best friend Doug Alward. 

His mother encouraged him to go to enroll in the Simon Fraser University, which Fox did, and he studied kinesiology to help him become a gym teacher.  On November 12, 1976, Terry crashed into the back of a pickup truck while heading home to Port Coquitlam.  He survived, with only a sore knee, and ignored it until the end of the basketball season.  In March of ’77, the pain had intensified, and so he went to the hospital.  There, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a cancer that usually starts in the knee.  He was informed he would have the leg amputated, and would have to go into chemotherapy.  He was also told he had a 50% chance of survival.  Two years earlier, that percentage would have been only 15%.  The advancement in medical technology amazed him. 

Three weeks after his amputation, he was once again walking, only this time with an artificial leg.  He began playing golf with his father soon after.  Doctors say Fox’s positive outlook while going through his 16 months of chemotherapy helped him immensily.  When he left the hospital, he had a new outlook on life, he owed his survival to advancements in cancer treatments,  and wanted to do something himself that would help other cancer victims. 

Summer 1977 Rick Hansen invited him to join his wheelchair basketball team.  Less then two months after his first practice, Fox joined the team, and won three national titles with the team, and named an all-star by the North American Wheelchair Basketball Association in 1980. 

The day before his cancer surgery Fox read an article about Dick Traum, the first amputee to complete the New York Marathon.  He was inspired, and he began a 14 month training program, telling family he wanted to complete a marathon too.  He secretly planned his now famous Marathon of hope, only telling Doug Alward. 

Fox sent a letter to the Canadian Cancer Society asking for funding for his run, and they reluctantly accepted.  His plan was to get a $1 donation from each of Canada’s 24 million residents.  Fox was endorsed by the Ford Motor Company with a camper van, Imperial Oil donated fuel, and Adidas contributed shoes.  Fox refused any companies that asked for him to endorse their products, he didn’t want anyone to profit from his run. 

The marathon began on April 12, 1980 when Fox dipped his leg in the Atlantic Ocean, and began his 8000 kilometer trek.  On September 1^st, 1980, outside of Thunder Bay Ontario, Fox had several coughing fits, and asked to be driven to the hospital.  Once there, he was diagnosed with lung Cancer.  He was forced to end his run after 143 days and 5373 kilometers.  By the following April, he had raised over 23 million dollars.  Fox died on June 19, 1981. 

Schools everywhere now have a Terry Fox run in September to honour Terry Fox and to raise money for Cancer research.