Terry Fox - Running After a Hero

Terrance Stanley Fox, or Terry Fox as he is fondly known became famous for running the incredible run across Canada in 1980 called the Marathon of Hope, to raise funds for cancer research. If you think that’s no big deal.. then you probably do not realise that he actually ran the marathon with one prosthetic leg. His leg was amputated due to cancer. He was 18 when he was diagnosed with bone cancer.

He was inspired to run the ‘Marathon of Hope’ just the night before his right leg was amputated, after reading about an amputee who ran the New York City Marathon. He trained for 18 months and ran with his prosthetic leg for 143 consecutive days covering 5,373km (he ran approximately 42km everyday)! However, Terry was forced to abruptly end his run after discovering that his cancer had returned. Terry Fox died a month before his 23rd birthday on June 28, 1981, but his inspiring spirit lives on till today in the annual Terry Fox Run.

Here in Malaysia, every year, money raised from the Terry Fox Run is donated to a cancer research organization. This money raised for the 2007 run this year goes to the Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF) - a non-profit cancer research organization.

The Terry Fox run is a non-competitive run, and is open to all organizations and individuals of all ages. Even toddlers are welcome. Just be there on that day, buy the T-shirt and donate as much as you can. No registration is involved. You can run for 5km or 10km. You need not even run – you can walk, cycle, skate, roller blade or take part in a wheelchair.

You can also support Terry’s vision to raise funds for cancer research by purchasing the t-shirts (I’ve got mine already). For information on purchasing the T-Shirts, visit the organiser’s site.

Cancer is a terrible degenerative disease. A friend from my church had his leg amputated about 5 years ago, and just recently, his pathologist confirmed that the cancer he had, fibrosarcoma, has had a recurrence. He has been scheduled to undergo an operation called hemipelvectomy (also called transpelvic amputation) in University Hospital, Malaysia. Another friend of mine just lost his mother to this terrible disease a couple of weeks ago.

We can’t run away from the reality of things like these when it happens to us - but how many of us can get inspired to achieve something when we undergo such trying times? Terry Fox is proof that the human spirit can conquer the greatest odds.

I don’t feel that this is unfair. That’s the thing about cancer. I’m not the only one, it happens all the time to people. I’m not special. This just intensifies what I did. It gives it more meaning. It’ll inspire more people. I just wish people would realise that anything’s possible if you try; dreams are made possible if you try.” – Terry Fox (1958-1981)

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