Terry Fox: A Hero's Journey of Hope and Determination

On April twelfth, nineteen eighty, Terry Fox, a one legged long distance runner out of Canada, began his Marathon of Hope, attempting to run from the east coast of Canada all the way to the west coast, all to raise money. Here's your research, Here's the story. Hi Terry Fox on today's Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. Terry Fox was born in Canada in nineteen fifty eight, and growing up he was always competitive loved playing sports. He took her to join the basketball team while in school, but the coach suggested because he was a shorter guy, maybe he should try a cross country which he did in order to impress the coach to maybe make the basketball team as well. He continued to improve his basketball skills to eventually make the team, and after his Grade twelve year, he won the high schools Aflee of the Year and then later, with some pressure from his mother, enrolled in Simon Fraser University and Eva was able to become a member of the junior varsity team, but unfortunately, on November twelftheenth nineteen seventy six, Fox was driving home and got distracted by some construction on the road and crashed into the back of a truck, injuring his right knee. But his love of sports, he wanted to continued playing basketball despite the pain he was feeling, and was able to make it through to the end of that basketball season, but by March nineteen seventy seven, the pain was too intense he had to go see a doctor. When they discovered that he had assio sarcoma, which is a cancerous tumor in the bone that started near his knee, They told him they wouldn't need to amputate his leg give him chemotherapy to help prevent the spread cancer. They gave him a fifty survival rate, but they told him just a few years earlier it was only a fifteen survival rate, just showing the value of the cancer research. And with the help of an artificial leg. Three weeks after the imputation, Terry was already walking again with a positive outlook. He did not want to just sit around and mope. He wanted to keep moving, and that summer in nineteen seventy seven, he was actually invited tryout for the wheelchair basketball team and made the national team after just playing the sport for two months. He won three national titles with the team and was named an All Star in nineteen eighty. Now around this time, he had actually heard about a runner named Dick Throum who became the very first person in nineteen seventy six to complete the New York Marathon using a prosthetic lake, and this inspired Terry and he wanted to do something similar. So after fourteen months of training, he was able to complete a marathon himself. But this was just the beginning. He had had a plan that he wanted to run across the entire length of Canada to increase cancer awareness, so he actually sent a letter to the Canadian Cancer Society asking help support him in proquering this feat. Now, the Cancer Society was actually a very skeptical of the success he would have, but he offered to help as long as Fox was able to acquire sponsors and get a medical certificate. So now it was time for him to find the sponsors. He sent letters and made phone calls to all different kinds of vehicle and running shoe companies to help cover the costs of running across the country and asking for grants to help for a new running lake. But he made a condition he would not accept anything or endorse any product and refused anyone to profit from his run. And despite these conditions, the Ford Motor Company donated a camper van, Imperial Oil donated fuel, and Adidas donated running shoes. And now came the big beginning to the run. On April twelfth, nineteen eighty, Fox dipped his right leg into the Atlantic Ocean, filling two large bottles with ocean water. He intended to keep one as a souvenir and poured the other one into the Atlantic Ocean after completing it. So, starting in Saint John's, New Finland, his goal was to go all the way across to Victoria, British Columbia. Now this got some local news involved, but it wasn't a big moment, and it was a very hard first few days of running, as there was very constantly. But when he got to Channel New Finland, the town of about ten thousand residents, they had donated ten thousand dollars when he arrived, and already dealing with challenges and just not getting enough news coverage, Fox was getting frustrated, but Fox continued running, running about twenty six miles a day, and he arrived in Montreal about one third of his journey and collected about two hundred thousand dollars in donations. At this point he had actually caught the attention of Isn't Sharp, the CEO of the Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts who had lost the sign to Melanoba in nineteen seventy eight, and Sharp gave food an a combination to Terry and his team throughout the trip and also pledged two dollars a mile, persuading a thousand other corporations to do the same, and this really gained the popularity of Terry's run. And at this point now the Cancer Society was asking him to make stops at certain locations, which was going to add running time to his trip, but Fox agreed because he thought as long as it was bringing in money for cancer research, it would be worth it. So when he arrived in Ottawa, he got to meet the Governor General and the Prime Minister and even got to kick the ceremonial kickoff for a Canadian Football League game, getting a standing ovation from all the fans. He was also able to throw out the first pitch at a Toronto Blues Day's game at a Toronto Blue Jay game, and that one day long they were able to collect and estimated one hundred thousand dollars. Then Bobby Or, a Hockey Hall of famer, presented him with a check of twenty five thousand dollars. This one day grew the popularity of Terry's journey more than anything else and became national news where everyone wanted to check in on how Terry was doing. But the physical demands of running a marathon every day was starting to take its toll on Fox's body. He took after taking some arrest days, he continued running despite having shin splints and inflamed me and he developed and developed cysts on his stump as well as having Disney spells in Sininaiis. But on September first, he started to develop an intense cough and experienced test pains, and he decided to go to the hospital and Is there where his journey across Canada unfortunately stopped. As he held a press conference the next day announcing his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs, and after one hundred and thirty days of running and over five thousand kilometers, which is over three thousand miles. Fox's journey had ended. He refused offers to complete the run by multiple other people as he wanted to complete it himself after he recovered. At that point, he had raised one point seven million dollars roughly five million dollars to day, and the CT Television network held a telethon to help support Terry and the cancer research he was doing, which raised another ten million dollars, and the governments of British Columbia and Ontario donated a million each as well. But unfortunately, Fox did not recover from this cancer, despite receiving the best care he could, and even Pope John Paul the Second sending a telegram saying he was praying for him and doctors using experimental treatment. On June nineteenth, thirteen eighty one, he was admitted into the hospital and he fell on doocoma and passed away. On June twenty eighth, nineteen ninety one. All the flags in Canada flew at half mass and his funeral was broadcast to the whole country. But Terry Fox's legacy didn't in There is the sharp that CEO from the Four Seasons put together a Terry Run, which was a marathon in Terry's honor to help raise money for cancer research, and it's become a staple every September. In nineteen eighty one, the Terry Run raising over three point five million dollars and it's continued to grow as there's now over one million people that participate in over sixty countries. To this day, they've raised over eight hundred and fifty million dollars in cancer research through the Terry not just sitting there down but doing something to raise awareness and sometimes that's all we need to get change done. Thank you for listening. If you like this, please rate and review wherever you're listening. 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