Letter to the Editor: Honouring Terry Fox Sept. 15

Cochrane will once again host its annual Terry Fox Run on Sept. 15 in Mitford Park starting at 10 a.m.

Forty-three years ago, Terry Fox left St. John’s Newfoundland to run across Canada on his artificial leg. He was just 22, an amputee recovering from bone cancer. He wanted to raise awareness and funds in the global fight against cancer.  

With his courage, determination and hopefulness, he would have made it across this vast land if cancer had not returned to ravage his young body.  Terry’s personal ‘Marathon of Hope’ ended near Thunder Bay, Ontario, but he is honoured every September by ordinary Canadians and people from all around the world.  He has left a legacy of hope for everyone, everywhere.

Since 1981, Cochrane has held a Terry Fox Run: first in the schools, and then as an annual event. When Betty Fox visited Cochrane in the early 1990s to see the terry Fox Park at Glenbow School, she loving declared that Terry was no hero.  Betty said he was just an ordinary boy who wanted to make a difference.  But, sometimes, it is the most ordinary people among us who change the world. We just don’t always see them coming.

Terry’s movement across the country was heralded as miraculous.  CBC evening news reported his whereabouts regularly as he progressed westward from Newfoundland through the Maritimes and Quebec, then into Ontario. Folks became mesmerized. Moms rushed to the TV with dishtowels in their hands and dads slid into their overstuffed chairs while kids scrambled in time to see how far Terry had made it each day. Maybe, we thought, he would raise enough money to find the cure. 

When cancer stopped Terry short, the country paused and collectively we mourned.  Mouths went dry, and tears flowed. Our hearts were broken. A spectacular memorial statute was put up along a stretch of the TransCanada Highway near Thunder Bay that was named for Terry Fox. An Ontario businessman launched the annual Terry Fox Run to help finish his journey to create a cancer-free world.  

Some people say the image of Terry running his marathon is the most important Canadian icon we have in our collective consciousness.  It reflects what it means to be a Canadian and we claim Terry Fox as our inspirational hero.  

Every September, participants register with the run and collect donations from ordinary hardworking Canadians in remembrance of Terry Fox. On run day, folks walk, run, jog, ride, skateboard, hop, or even skip and jump along a 10 km route. Donors and participants alike know why they do this, although some have not come face-to-face with the motivating factor of cancer. 

Since 1980, new technologies, treatments and medicines have emerged that help cancer patients, and many more people are surviving a diagnosis.  Perhaps, there is a cure in sight and the funds we donate to the run have made some of these scientific discoveries possible.

Even though I can still hear and see Betty Fox chastising me for calling her boy a hero, he remains my beacon of hope, courage and determination.  To me, Terry is the Canadian hero of all time, followed closely by Tommy Douglas who made sure public health care was put in place to save lives that would have been otherwise lost due to the tremendous costs of medical treatment.  Both these men made a difference to our country and who we are when one of us says proudly, ‘I am a Canadian.’

Judy Stewart

Cochrane, AB.