Terry Fox -perhaps the greatest Canadian?
OK. I am off again tomorrow for any regular readers of CBC. I fly to Vancouver tomorrow night, and intend to go towards the Rockies next week, so you may be spared my rantings for a few days, as I dont expect to be in meaningful contact with technology, except perhaps to call my mom and wish her happy birthday on Saturday.. (but this is to say it now, in case i forget or am stranded somewhere without access to telephone..)
Before i go, just a quick note about one of the most amazing people I have read about since i have been here. Terry Fox. For most of you, you wont know who he is, and i can hardly do his story justice in a couple of paragraphs. I have linked his web site to this page. He was diagnosed with bone cancer as an 18 year old, and lost a leg to the disease.
In 1980 as a 21 year old, he set out to run across Canada, at the rate of a marathon a day, with the aim of raising $1 per person in the country for cancer research. Before cancer overcame his lungs, he ran a marathon a day for 143 days, and covered over 5000km of Canada. He raised $24m before dying in 1981, and since then the country has continued to run in his memory, and over $360m has been raised.
The concept of running a marathon is for me almost impossible, but people manage it after training and preparation. The idea of running one every day for 5 months is quite astonishing. Through lonely land too, as the vast majority of Canada is empty..
The strength of feeling I can see for Terry Fox is overwhelming. A 21 year old that performed miracles in life, and in whose memory people are trying to make those miracles keep running...
Anyway, 18th September is this year's Terry Fox run. People will run and in this 25th anniversary year will hope to push that total towards $400m.
I wouldnt be as rude as to say make a donation necessarily. Back home, 1 in 3 people suffer from cancer, so it is something that hits us all, and it is difficult to push money in one direction at the expense of another.. so i'll make a donation for you, to the 2 people running from our office. And if anyone did want to give $1 (50p), you can trace the web page from mine.
Sometimes though the real inspiration is just in the story. Canada deserves to be proud to have had Terry Fox, and long may the work he started continue...
Before i go, just a quick note about one of the most amazing people I have read about since i have been here. Terry Fox. For most of you, you wont know who he is, and i can hardly do his story justice in a couple of paragraphs. I have linked his web site to this page. He was diagnosed with bone cancer as an 18 year old, and lost a leg to the disease.
In 1980 as a 21 year old, he set out to run across Canada, at the rate of a marathon a day, with the aim of raising $1 per person in the country for cancer research. Before cancer overcame his lungs, he ran a marathon a day for 143 days, and covered over 5000km of Canada. He raised $24m before dying in 1981, and since then the country has continued to run in his memory, and over $360m has been raised.
The concept of running a marathon is for me almost impossible, but people manage it after training and preparation. The idea of running one every day for 5 months is quite astonishing. Through lonely land too, as the vast majority of Canada is empty..
The strength of feeling I can see for Terry Fox is overwhelming. A 21 year old that performed miracles in life, and in whose memory people are trying to make those miracles keep running...
Anyway, 18th September is this year's Terry Fox run. People will run and in this 25th anniversary year will hope to push that total towards $400m.
I wouldnt be as rude as to say make a donation necessarily. Back home, 1 in 3 people suffer from cancer, so it is something that hits us all, and it is difficult to push money in one direction at the expense of another.. so i'll make a donation for you, to the 2 people running from our office. And if anyone did want to give $1 (50p), you can trace the web page from mine.
Sometimes though the real inspiration is just in the story. Canada deserves to be proud to have had Terry Fox, and long may the work he started continue...
posted by CBC at 11:58 pm
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