Thank you to the STS community for your participation in our run on September 13. It was an amazing morning of demonstrated caring, encouragement and fun! The STS Terry Fox Run is a part of one of Canada’s biggest displays of solidarity against cancer while setting an example of compassion, fostering school spirit, and encouraging physical activity! Our participation exemplifies our dedication to supporting Terry Fox.
For 3,339 miles, from St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada’s eastern most city on the shore of the Atlantic, Terry ran through six provinces and was two-thirds of the way home to B.C. He’d run close to a marathon a day, for 143 days. No mean achievement for an able-bodied runner, an extraordinary feat for an amputee. Terry’s left leg was strong and muscular. His right was a mere stump fitted with an artificial limb made of fibreglass and steel. He’d lost the leg to cancer when he was 18.
He was 22 when he started; curly haired, good-looking, sunburned. He was strong, wilful and stubborn. His run, the Marathon of Hope, as he called it, an adventure across Canada that defied logic and common sense, was his way of repaying a debt.
Terry believed that he had won his fight against cancer, and he wanted to raise money, $1 million perhaps, to fight the disease. There was a second, possibly more important purpose to his marathon; a man is not less because he has lost a leg, indeed, he may be more. Certainly, he showed there were no limits to what an amputee could do.
He changed people’s attitude towards the disabled, and he showed that while cancer had claimed his leg, his spirit was unbreakable. His Marathon of Hope had started as an improbable dream – two friends, one to drive the van, one to run, a ribbon of highway, and the sturdy belief that they could perform a miracle.
He ran through ice storms and summer heat, against bitter winds of such velocity he couldn’t move, through fishing villages and Canada’s biggest cities. Though he shunned the notion himself, people were calling him a hero. He still saw himself as simple little Terry Fox, from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, average in everything but determination.
Terry’s dream continues and we can be part of his Marathon of Hope. Every year Terry Fox Runs are held in over 9,000 communities across Canada with the goal of raising funds for cancer research. The Terry Fox Foundation works directly with the Terry Fox Research Institute striving for the best outcomes for cancer patients.
