It’s instructive, and reassuring, that Terry Fox continues to be relevant to our lives 40 years after his Marathon of Hope.
Millions of dollars continue to be raised in his name for cancer research, every schoolchild knows who he is and what he achieved, and many of them will take part in a Terry Fox run, even though he died before many of their parents were born,
He is our hero. A national treasure. And, yes, his marathon continues.
On Friday night on CHEK-TV, a special telethon was to be held to honour Terry’s memory by continuing to raise money for the cause. This year’s “run” is a virtual affair, thanks to COVID-19, but after all this is over and we return to something like normal, you can bet hundreds of thousands will be out there running for Terry. He continues to inspire.
One of the most poignant, and heartwarming, books to appear this fall is Forever Terry: A Legacy in Letters. The editor is Darrell Fox, Terry’s younger brother, who accompanied him on the run, every bruising step of the way.
Darrell wrote to famous Canadians and asked them to send letters to Terry. The book has tributes from the likes of hockey icons Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby, Hayley Wickenheiser and Wayne Gretzky, rocker Tom Cochrane, writer Margaret Atwood, broadcaster Lloyd Robertson and Victoria’s Steve Nash and Silken Laumann.
They all tell us what Terry still means to them. Singer Michael Bublé in the foreword talks about all of us having to face challenges in our lives and be required “to reach deep into ourselves and hope we can find the strength within to take one more step like Terry did.”
As Bobby Orr points out, in his letter, we tend to use the word “hero” too easily, especially for sports stars. “But the fact that we still honour the memory of this great Canadian four decades later is a testament to the fact he is someone truly worthy of the title ‘hero.”
Orr met Terry Fox and was instantly taken with him. “Just consider that for a moment: a marathon a day for a young man with one leg who was fighting cancer at the same time.” Orr said he’d read that it took Terry about 20 minutes of running each of those 143 marathons before he was able to accept the pain that came along with the activity. Then he would bear down and run another marathon.
But there’s something else that the book shows us. Darrell remembers his wicked sense of humour – think early Steve Martin – and his absolute love of life. He reminds us of that smile. “There are so many photos of Terry smiling that amazing smile of his, taken during the marathon. Is there a better smile out there?”
The iconic images of Terry endure. They represent courage, but also generosity. But most of all – hope. Hope with a big smile. And that’s something we can all do with right now.
Ian Haysom is the former news director for Global BC and a consultant for CHEK News.
Tune into CHEK News from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. tonight for the Terry Fox Mini-Telethon, hosted by Veronica Cooper and Kevin Charach as part of The Upside. You watch online on our live newscast page.
Ian Haysom
