Shawnigan Runs for Terry Fox

Terry Fox began the Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980, regularly running from 4:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. He didn’t truly catch the attention of the media and the rest of the country until he reached Montreal in late June. On September 1, outside Thunder Bay, he was forced to stop and seek medical help. The next day, he announced that the cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. He was forced to end his run after 143 days and 5,373 km. Terry Fox died on June 28, 1981, and his legacy began. He had managed to raise $24 million — one dollar for everyone in Canada at the time — thanks to an influx of donations in the months after his final run and his death.

 

Mr. Swannell, who grew up in Manchester, England, and also organized the 2022 Terry Fox Run in Duncan, recalled his first encounter with the story of Terry Fox.

 

“I first became aware of the name when on a bus ride down Terry Fox Drive in Ottawa on the way to a concert in the early 2000s. I asked my Canadian wife who he was. 'Terry Fox is the Canadian hero,’ were her first words as she then enthusiastically and movingly told me about his place in national folklore. As a kid, she had also seen firsthand on television and in newspapers his Marathon of Hope, a whole nation on the edge of their seats willing him on.

 

“As a non-Canadian, what does Terry Fox represent to me? The words hero and legend are used to such an extent these days that it loses some of its meaning. In the UK, we love to celebrate our artistic and sporting legends, past and present. However, I don’t think we have a national hero who is revered by a nation as a whole. He also transcends all cultural barriers. He is one of us. He wasn’t an unattainable celebrity. Terry Fox was an ordinary guy who just happened to do something extraordinary.”

 

Last week’s Terry Fox Run kicked off a season of fundraising to fight cancer that will also include a visit by the Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock on October 5.