Inspirational Cancer Patient: The One-Legged Runner Who Ran 3,000 Miles
Terry Fox was an athlete with extraordinary motivation and spirit. At a very young age, one of her legs was amputated due to cancer. Despite this misfortune, in 1980, he crossed Canada on the Marathon of hope in an attempt to raise $ 1 million for cancer research. Imagine running with a prosthetic leg, over rough terrain and harsh weather conditions! But despite these difficulties, Terry Fox remained determined to complete the marathon. These difficulties also did not become a hindrance to Terry’s mission, as he extended his fundraising goal to $ 22 million. Finally, he succeeded in this noble mission and ended the Marathon of hope near Thunder Bay, but cancer turned out to be a formidable enemy that consumed his life; Terry passed away because the cancer had spread to the lungs while he was running vigorously 24 miles a day.
The story of how Terry Fox started running is something straight out of a mythical book. In 1977, 21-year-old Terry Fox learned that he had a life-threatening tumor on his leg and that if he didn’t get amputated it would kill him very soon. He decided to go for treatment and agreed to have his leg amputated. The very night of his amputation, he read about a runner who ran a long-distance race despite having his leg amputated. Since then, he decided to emulate such a noble dream by going to a marathon himself. Such was the dream that served as a seed, that it turned out to be a giant tree of hope for humanity.
Terry, after recovering enough to stand and move, began a career that he called Marathon of hope. He ran more than 5,000 kilometers in just 143 days. When asked why he chose to run and what kept him running, he gave a very simple but profound answer saying, “I am not a dreamer, and I am not saying this will initiate any kind of answer or definitive cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. I have to do it. “
Terry’s dream was to raise $ 1 from every Canadian citizen, and with a population of around 24 million people in Canada, Terry was able to succeed. Terry passed away sometime before his 23rd birthday, but left a legacy of enormous proportions. The Terry Fox Run event and fundraiser continued since his death and, in 2014, the foundation has raised about $ 650 million for cancer research. Such is the fate of a dream made possible.
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