For the past thirty five years, the Terry Fox Run has been taking place to honour a true Canadian hero. Various groups, organizations and municipalities organize a non-competitive run to raise money for cancer research and to pay tribute to the man who started it all.
Terrance Stanley “Terry” Fox began the ‘Marathon of Hope’ in 1981 after having his right leg amputated in 1977 when it was discovered that Terry had osteosarcoma. The Marathon of Hope, a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research where Terry hoped to raise one dollar from each of Canada’s 24 million people.
With a quiet and lack luster beginning, the Marathon of Hope started from St. John’s, Newfoundland in April and ran the equivalent of a full marathon every day. Fox had become a national star by the time he reached Ontario and he made numerous public appearances with businessmen, athletes, and politicians in his efforts to raise money. Despite his dedication and passion, he was forced to end his run outside of Thunder Bay when the cancer spread to his lungs. His hopes of overcoming the disease and completing his marathon ended when he died nine months later.
Since then, Terry Fox is memorialised every year with the ‘Terry Fox Run’. For over three decades, children in schools across Canada have been lacing up their sneakers to show their support for the dream of Terry Fox.
The students of Prairie Waters Elementary here in Chestermere held their Terry Fox run on Friday September 25, 2015. They kicked off the day with an assembly in where row by row the students filled the gym – most of them sporting stickers on their shirts that read “Terry Fox ran for me. I’m running for _______”. Most of the students filled that space with the name of Terry Fox, but other students and Prairie Waters staff wrote the name of a family member or friend that they had lost to cancer or is currently battling cancer.
As the students watched a video montage of photos of Terry Fox, it inspired them for what happened next. Grade 4 teacher, Tiffany Speers, asked the students for words that would describe Terry Fox. Words like ‘brave’ ‘courageous’ and ‘strong’ were yelled out by the students – words that surely would make Fox proud to know that the students of Canada feel that way about him and what he did for cancer research.
Although Fox ran 5,373 kilometres in 143 days, the students of Prairie Waters Elementary did their part by running the pre-determined path near the school, but whether it was five steps or 5000 km’s, participating in the run and showing their support, is a long standing tradition that touches so many lives.
