We recently spent three days vacationing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and visited the Terry Fox Memorial, a tribute to a young man with an artificial leg and a dream, a young man whose courage and determination inspired and united an entire generation of Canadians as they had never been united before. Visiting the site was a very touching, tearful experience and one worth sharing. The inscription on the memorial starts with a quote from Terry: "Dreams are made if people only try. I believe in miracles. . . . I have to . . . because somewhere the hurting must stop."
Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, near Vancouver. He was a very active and athletic young man but unfortunately, in 1977, when he was 18, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated 6 inches above the knee. The night before his surgery, Fox read an article about an amputee who had competed in the New York Marathon. Indirectly, that story, along with Fox's own experiences watching the intensive suffering of cancer patients, inspired his 5,300-mile "Marathon of Hope," an attempt to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
After dipping his foot in the Atlantic, Terry Fox began his epic journey in St. John's, Newfoundland, on April 12, 1980. Running 26 miles a day on an artificial leg, this courageous young athlete made his way through the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and Ontario. However, on Sept. 1, after 143 days and 3,339 miles, he was forced to abandon his Marathon of Hope outside of Thunder Bay, because the cancer had reappeared-this time in his lungs. Terrance Stanley Fox died on June 28, 1981; he was 22.
This heroic young man from British Columbia was gone, but his journey is one Canadians will never forget-and his legacy was just beginning. To date, more than $300 million has been raised for cancer research in Terry's name.
When Frank isn't shedding tears in Thunder Bay, he can be reached at fburge@cmp.com.
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