The heroics of Tireless Terry
QUESTION How do the achievements of 1980s amputee runner Terry Fox compare with modern Paralympians?
CANADIAN cancer sufferer Terry Fox was 18 when his leg was amputated. He embarked on the Marathon Of Hope, an east-to-west cross-Canada run, to raise money for cancer research and became a national hero.
it is hard to compare his achievements with modern Paralympians because prosthetic technology has greatly advanced.
Fox was a cross-country runner and basketball player for his Port Coquitlam high school in British Columbia, which is now named after him. His right leg was amputated in 1977 after he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a cancer of the bone. He continued to run using an artificial leg and played wheelchair basketball in Vancouver, winning three national championships.
While recovering in hospital after his surgery, Fox came up with the idea of a cross-Canada charity run. He dipped his artificial leg in the atlantic on april 12, 1980, then set off on his challenge.
But his health failed before he had the chance to reach the Pacific. The disease had spread to his lungs and he was forced to stop on September 1, 1980, after running 3,339 miles and raising more than £1million. Fox announced his diagnosis in a heart-breaking Press conference the following day. a subsequent telethon raised £3.5 million.
He died in 1981, aged 22, and the Terry Fox Foundation has since raised more than £300 million through fun runs and events.
Fox ran on a modified walking leg and had to make an extra hop on his left leg to allow his artificial leg to swing through. The pressure on his good leg and his stump was intense. He went through eight left shoes and one right shoe.
Steve Fonyo, who lost his left leg to bone cancer at the age of 12, also did an east-to-west run and finished it. His Journey For Lives, starting on March 31, 1984, covered 4,924 miles in 14 months.
although Fonyo was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1985, many felt he was trying to emulate Fox’s abandoned journey too soon after the latter’s death. Furthermore, Fox was twice as fast: he averaged 24 miles a day, compared with 12 miles for Fonyo.
Many athletes have been driven to perform amazing feats following a disability. Climber Syd Scroggie was left blinded and with part of a leg missing by a World War ii landmine blast, yet completed more than 600 further ascents. dave Heeley, who became blind at 18, has completed ten marathons in ten days.
Miles Hilton-Barber, who is blind, completed an 11-day ultra-marathon across China from the Gobi desert to the Great Wall. an adventurer and motivational speaker, he believes feats of human endurance have changed his perspective of what it means to have a disability.
Jonathan Underwood, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.
QUESTION What are the rotating discs on top of vans?
DESPITE being named after a German inventor, Flettner rotors have been manufactured and sold by a British company since 1931.
during the 1920s, anton Flettner’s rotors were utilised to propel ships. Two 65 ft vertical axis rotors were mounted on the Buckau and the Barbara. These were rotated by a diesel engine. The wind blowing across resulted in a pressure difference across the rotor, known as the Magnus effect, creating thrust horizontal to the wind direction, which propelled the ship through the water. This drew the admiration of einstein and made the Flettner name world-famous. However, screw propulsion was a faster and more reliable system for shipping.
Finnish scientist Sigurd Savonius recognised it was feasible to harness the wind to maintain the Flettner cylinder rotation without diesel power. He modified the design by splitting the rotor in half. The two semi-cylindrical surfaces are displaced sideways along the plane of the cut, forming a wind turbine which in cross-section resembles a letter ‘S’.
Savonius was granted a patent in 1929. This design has been used for centrifugal ventilators.
Walter Stern founded British Flettner Ventilator Ltd in 1931, which is the world leader in the provision of wind-powered ventilation for commercial vehicles, particularly delivery vans but also for animal transportation, emergency vehicles, railway coaches, boats and trains.
Justine S. Fox, Aylesbury, Bucks.
QUESTION What caused the crash of two RAF jets at the same time, but 55 miles apart, on October 28, 1983?
THIS was an unfortunate coincidence. The proximity of the two crashes led to a delayed rescue that almost resulted in a further fatality.
On the morning of October 28, 1983, Flying Officer John Richard Sewell of 233 Operational Conversion Unit left RaF Wittering, flying the Harrier jump jet XV742 on a sortie to the Holbeach air Weapons Range in Lincolnshire.
His aircraft came down, he made no attempt to eject and was killed. He may have been hit by a ricochet of a shell from the Harrier’s cannon.
Meanwhile, Flight Lieutenant ian dixon, of 617 squadron at RaF Marham in norfolk, was flying an RaF Panavia Tornado Za558 at a low level over the sea, ten miles north of the norfolk coast, near Sheringham, when he became unresponsive. Having failed to rouse him, his navigator ejected both seats. Rescue operations did not begin for two hours due to confusion over the two incidents.
The navigator, who was rescued threeand-a-half hours after he entered the water, survived major injuries. dixon’s body was never found.
Simon Moore, Mirfield, W. Yorks.
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