Death of a Hero

On June 17, 2011, Betty Fox, mother of Terry Fox died.

I never met the Fox family; however, I remember exactly the moment that Terry Fox dipped his foot into the waters of St. John’s Newfoundland to mark the beginning of his Marathon of Hope. My family and I had recently moved to Northern British Columbia and I was parked on the side of the road when a radio announcer began giving details of this brave young man’s dream to raise money and awareness for Cancer research across the country. From that moment on, I was hooked.

I kept close tabs on his whereabouts through radio and the paper. I can’t explain what it was, but I knew he was going to do something great. When he was forced to stop his run after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, I wept. I was sad for his family, sad for his health and sad for his unrealized dream. Over the next year, there were snippets of news here and there and I took it all in, hoping and praying as everyone was, that the doctors were wrong, that a cure would be found, or that it simply was just a bad dream.

Terry Fox died on June 28, 1981. My husband and children and I had arrived in Surrey, BC the night before to visit with my mom. I knew that Terry Fox was in Royal Columbian hospital, about 30 minutes away but honestly had not thought about him in preparation of the trip or when we got there. We went to bed and I slept soundly until 4:30 am when I woke with a terrifying start. I sat up, looked at the clock and whispered as my eyes welled in tears, “Terry’s gone.” Of course, I told myself that I must have been dreaming and to just go back to sleep. When I got up a couple of hours later, the first news I heard was that Terry died at 4:35 am that morning.

I can’t explain what my emotional/spiritual connection with him was. We were close in age, grew up in the same area, but never met. He was a hero for me. And when his mom took up the “torch” to carry on his dream, she became my hero too.

Betty Fox established the Terry Fox Foundation. Thirty years have passed since the first Terry Fox Run took place with over $550 million dollars raised in 28 countries for Cancer research. An amazing accomplishment!

To the surviving Fox family members … God bless you all and may you find comfort in knowing that Betty and Terry made an immeasurable difference in this world and changed the lives of many…including mine.