Terry Fox’s dream still captures the imagination
25 years on, millions continue Marathon of Hope
VICTORIA • Terry Fox has finally made it to Victoria.
At Clover Point, a stone’s throw from where Terry would have completed his journey, a life-size bronze statue of the Port Coquitlam lad was unveiled yesterday morning at a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his Marathon of Hope.
Before thousands of cheering Victoria schoolchildren, Terry’s parents, Betty and Rolly Fox, looked upon the likeness of their son. Betty reached out and clasped the bronze fingers. She stroked the statue’s arm, then reached up to trace the high cheekbones.
“It’s beautiful,” Mr. Fox said. “Betty and I were just saying we think it’s a really young Terry here, but it’s a very good likeness.”
“I’m very proud to know there’s going to be a statue of Terry now,” Ms. Fox said. “It’s wonderful to know this is going to be sitting at Victoria’s Mile Zero and that others will be able to see the statue and maybe learn a little bit more about the Terry Fox Run.”
A cold rain did not dampen the spirits of the 3,000 local children who took part in the National School Run. Across Canada, more than three million students kept Terry’s dream alive.
“ The morning events were very moving. It was unbelievable,” Mr. Fox said. “It’s 25 years later and it seems like Terry’s still alive today. People think more about him today than they did 25 years ago.”
At the Victoria ceremony, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh presented a cheque for $10-million to the Foxes for the Terry Fox Foundation.
Lieutenant- Governor Iona Campagnolo talked about the young man who asked for nothing but $1 from every Canadian.
“I think most Canadians can still summon up a picture of Terry, running in that classic hippityhop gait of his, silhouetted against the bad weather and simmering sunshine,” said Ms. Campagnolo.
The summer of 1980 was a time when it gradually dawned on Canadians that in Terry Fox we had unexpectedly discovered a worthy national hero, someone we could believe in and follow, she said.
Canadians are a people who do not easily take heroes to heart, she added.
“But we do demand that our heroes remain true to who they are. Such a young man was Terry Fox. Never swerving from his stated purpose, with his intense and kind eyes, his unruly gold hair tumbling over a wealth of freckles that flowed across his face, Terry Fox became a permanent presence in most of our living rooms as television detailed his anguish, his daring, his courage, day by excruciating and heroic day.”
The 25th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope is a time to renew Terry’s pledge, she said.
“ And we will never give up his dream until every form of cancer is banished,” the Lieutenant-Governor said. “Cancer may have claimed Terry but it never, never could claim his dream.”
The Marathon of Hope has been taken up by millions of people in more than 50 countries around the world who have honoured Terry’s dream by raising almost $400-million.