Terry was always an athlete, making it all the more devastating for him to lose his leg to osteosarcoma in 1977. However, he continued as an athlete, running with an artificial leg, and playing wheelchair basketball, in which he won 3 national championships.
At the end of 1979, angry at his experience in hospital, and with how little research money went to cancer, he decided to attempt a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He sent letters to the Canadian Cancer Society and to various businesses asking for donations of a vehicle, gas and food. He also applied for grants for a running "leg." Although many were skeptical he got a van from Ford, gas from Imperial Oil, and running shoes from Adidas.
With little publicity he began his run on April 12, 1980. He was running an entire marathon every day. As he continued across the country, often forced off the road by drivers, running in bad weather, and attempting to cross Quebec with a group that didn't speak French, word began to grow about his efforts. The Cancer Society asked him to delay his arrival in Ottawa so that he would be there for Canada Day. He only agreed when they convinced him it would be beneficial to his fundraising efforts. In Ottawa, he was greeted by 16,000 people, including Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
When he arrived in Toronto over 10,000 people were there to greet him. What had started out as a solitary journey now had the entire country watching.
He continued on, refusing to take a day off, suffering from shin splints, an inflamed knee, cysts on the stump of his leg and dizzy spells. He refused to take a day off, even for his birthday.
On September 1st, 1980, he was forced to ask his traveling companions, his brother Daryl and friend Doug Alward, to take him to hospital after a severe coughing fit. He'd been finding himself exhausted each morning before he even began his run.
The next day he announced that he had to suspend his run: the cancer had returned, and spread to his lungs. He had been running for 143 days, and run 5,280 km. Although he had every intention of finishing the run, on June 28, 1981 he passed away after developing pneumonia and falling into a coma.
On a personal note, one of my best memories of high school each year was doing The Terry Fox Run as a school. It's never been a competitive run: there are no winners or losers, just as Terry wanted. Each year the high schools in my area all met at a park where we would do the walk in our school groups, singing school songs and just generally having a big pep rally. Each year the schools raise thousands of dollars.
I don't know anyone whose life hasn't been touched by cancer in some way. Those of us whose cancer stories have happy endings owe so much to Terry. Today, just take a moment and be thankful.
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