Terry Fox and the Importance of Heroes

September 15 is the date of this year’s Terry Fox Run. Perhaps no other annual charitable event has captured the imagination and enthusiasm of ordinary Canadians quite like this one.

For those of you too young to remember, this brave young man set out in 1980 to run across the country, just three years after losing a leg to cancer at age 18. His journey took him from the easternmost edge of Canada — St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador — to Thunder Bay, Ontario. He ran in blazing heat, freezing cold and pouring rain, often in extraordinary pain, covering an average of a marathon every day.

By the time he’d run 5,373 km (3,339 miles) across six provinces, cancer had spread to his lungs and Terry returned home to BC for further treatment. Sadly, he died in June 1981 at age 22.

Terry set out with a goal of raising $1 for every Canadian. In his lifetime, he achieved that, raising $24 million. Each year, millions of people in close to 25 countries participate in Terry Fox Runs and other fundraisers. Thirty-nine years after his own fundraising run, nearly $800 million has been raised in his name and developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment have made great advancements. He’s had a coin minted with his image, schools and roads named for him, and even a mountain bears his name. That’s quite a legacy to leave behind.

But Terry did so much more than raise money for cancer research. Terry called his run the Marathon of Hope.

I think part of what makes Terry a hero (a label he rejected) is that he inspires us to believe that we can do more than we think we can.

Every person who saw Terry, no matter how much ground he covered in a day, saw a person who persisted. Someone who showed true grit and determination to simply keep going.

That’s something we can all aspire to.

September 15 is a great day to honour Terry’s achievement by sponsoring a runner, or by getting out there yourself to raise money for cancer research. You don’t need to do a marathon. You don’t even need to run. There are runs and walks of all durations, in almost every community.

It’s also a great day to honour your own personal heroes, whoever they may be, by making a commitment to yourself to do something that’s important to you — no matter how impossible it may seem.

All the best,

--Doug