Terry Fox inspires generations
Darrell Fox has met a lot of kids named in honour of his brother Terry.
But he’d never met one named Fox. Until Sunday.
Hal Green was just eight years old in 1980 when Terry Fox, a one-legged cancer survivor, tried to run across Canada.
“Terry Fox was such an inspiration to so many Canadians,” Green said before the start of the annual fundraising run for cancer research at the Mission sportsfields.
“Running the equivalent of a marathon a day for as long as he did, it was just incredible his determination,” Green said. “So Fox is named for him.”
Darrell Fox, Terry’s brother, was in Kelowna to help his own son, Connor, move into residence at the UBC Okanagan campus. He said encountering a youngster named Fox in honour of his brother was a unique experience.
“It’s a first for me to hear the last name Fox used as a first name,” Fox said. “Thirty-eight years on from the Marathon of Hope, to hear something like that just shows the impact of Terry’s story.”
Fox, Terry’s younger brother, was with him when he started his attempt to run across Canada on April 12, 1980.
He accompanied him until a recurrence of cancer forced Fox to abandon the effort on Sept. 1, 1980 near Thunder Bay, Ont.
Fox’s goal was to raise $24 million, then equivalent to one dollar for every Canadian, to support cancer research.
To date, more than $750 million has been raised in his name.
“The interesting thing about the Terry Fox story is that it's approaching 40 years, and it never dates itself,” Fox said. “It’s still a powerful story that inspires the next generation. It’s a story about an average person that did the extraordinary.
“He proved that one person can make a difference,” Fox said.
“We're still on the journey to find the answer to the disease that is cancer. But we've come a long way in the past 38 years.”
“Progress has been made. People are now living with cancer, living longer with the disease,” Fox said.
“The side effects are not as dramatic. Terry’s form of cancer, he would live if he was diagnosed with it today. To me, that’s extremely powerful.”
Norm Sabourin, organizer of the Kelowna Terry Fox Run for three years, said last year's event raised just under $30,000. Hopes for Sunday’s race total were in the range of $35,000 to $40,000, an amount that includes online donations but not money raised at schools.