Terry Fox: A Real Inspiration
...a challenge. In his senior year of high school, he was awarded Athlete of the Year. His high school peers believed it was because he out “gutted” everyone else. (2) Before his run, Terry was perceived as an athlete with pure will and determination, with nothing obstructing his way to achieving a goal. During and after his run, many found Terry a hero. The definition used to describe a Greek hero is someone who is given great abilities form the gods and using them to their full advantage. They put others before themselves with great strength and sacrifice. Terry’s accomplishments were daring and inspiring ones. He never sought or wanted self pity, and when seeking motivation to go on, he thought of others suffering, not himself. Terry’s nature was that of a true successor and it began with early habits and his ambition that offered him a road of opportunity. Terry did not just want to fight cancer itself, but for the lives it touched, in particular, children. This is what truly inspired him to run. He was not motivated by his own suffering but the suffering that children at this cancer ward endured everyday. It broke his heart seeing children’s lives, once so full of smiles and potential, come to a halt. Terry was deeply moved when spending time along his run with a ten year old boy go through the same type of cancer and endure the same amputation as he did. It made him strive harder for his cause. He quoted to the sponsors for his run, “There were the faces with the brave smiles, and the ones who had given up smiling. There were the feelings of hopeful denial, and the feelings of despair…I could not leave, knowing these faces and feelings would still exist, even though I’d be set free of mine. Somewhere the hurting must stop…” (1)Terry was driven by the faces he left behind at his hospital in British Columbia. He left his own suffering and self pity on the side of the road while he would run. Terry wrote in his journal, “I’m not a dreamer, and I’m not saying this will initiate any kind of definite answer or cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. I have to.”(2)Terry’s philosophy of once you start something, finish it, no matter the circumstances, never quite, and never give up ran through his blood and integrity pumped in his heart. He never once cheated. When finishing his run for a day, Terry marked the very last step he took with rocks, and would return there the next morning, not one step head. He knew if he missed one step, one mile, what he was doing would have no meaning, and he would lose his sincerity. Terry’s life achievement of the Marathon of Hope, a goal seeming almost impossible, proved to be a challenge that Terry needed to impact the lives of cancer patients. Terry began training around two years after his operation. He kept his ambition for the Marathon of Hope under cover and a secret for as long as he could. He told people he was training for the Vancouver Marathon, and ran over 3000 miles before starting his run across Canada. For financial aid, Terry wrote to various businesses and held dances and garage sale. Over three thousand dollars was raised, Esso donated gas for a camper van given by Ford Motor Company, Addidas supplied running shoes and the Four Seasons Hotel provided Terry’s accommodations. (4) Terry began his journey on the Saturday afternoon of April 12th, 1980 by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean at the St. John’s waterfront in Newfoundland. Vancouver was 5, 300 miles and six months away. It was underway with only a few curious onlookers, a CBC camera crew and a dream. Terry averaged a marathon a day, twenty six miles, or forty three kilometres for four months. He woke up each morning in a no name hotel at four thirty am and by breakfast time he would usually eat a couple orders of pancakes, fruit, beans and a coke. Not once did he think of accepting endorsements. He had no appetite for a personal profit, and every dollar donated went straight to the cause. Terry endured weather that seemed against him, vicious winds, angry rain, the blistering hot sun, but he never let up his running. After running through the Maritimes, a reception for Terry was held at Grand Falls New Brunswick. There was a huge turnout and there was a need for more volunteers just to deal with the thousands of cheques that were coming in daily. (4) On June 21st, Terry looked passed the politics and ran along the Trans Canada highway, with no language barrier, in to Quebec. He attracted people of all ages, and was no longer alone. He had thousands of supports and people running beside him. He would say it was so much easier to keep running with the amount of support he had. People opened their hearts, and even those who could not afford it, opened their wallets. (2) Terry would reach Thunder Bay, gone through eight pairs of running shows, and 5,373 kilometres, 143 days, when his body became pain stricken and hard hardness of breath. On September 1st, he finally resided and saw a doctor. (2) The nation cried with Terry when he was forced to strop because the cancer had spread to his lungs. He went home to British Columbia for treatment. There, the Governor General awarded Terry the Order of Canada, and he became the youngest Canadian to receive it. His journey wasn’t over yet, the dream was still in his heart and he had the attitude that he was going to return to keep running. The Marathon of Hope and Terry Fox is a true success in promoting cancer, a disease people feel uncomfortable and frightened of, awareness and raised an immensely significant amount of money towards cancer research. Terry would think of being able to finish his race when he was healed, because, he had started it. The nation grieved when Terry took a turn for the worst and passed away on June 28th, 1981 in Newminister BC, jus...