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The 7 - Current Events & Politics - The Marathon of Hope started 25 years ago today
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The Goon
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#1 Posted on 12.4.05 1825.30
Reposted on: 12.4.12 1825.53
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25 years ago today, Terry Fox dipped his artificial right leg into the Atlantic Ocean by St.John's, Newfoundland and began his run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

For more than four months, he ran the equivalent of a marathon. Every day. On ONE leg. He stopped just outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario, when it was learned that the cancer had spread. Terry eventually died from that cancer in May, 1981.

His goal was to raise $25 million dollars-at that time, it was one dollar for every Canadian. More than $360 million dollars have been raised worldwide in Terry's name since he started his run. Every September, the Terry Fox Run is held across Canada and around the world.

As a 9-year-old in 1980, Terry Fox had a profound influence on my life. 25 years later, he still represents to me a level of determination and selflessness that I hope to match.

To find out more, and to get involved, you can go here:

The Marathon of Hope
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Sobriquet
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#2 Posted on 12.4.05 2118.53
Reposted on: 12.4.12 2125.29
While it's hard to argue with Tommy Douglas as "The Greatest Canadian", I still think Terry Fox is the most profound choice for that title on a world stage.

Just a normal guy with a pretty simple idea and a whole hell of a lot of determination.

Everyone's touched by cancer in some way, and everyone's touched by the life of Terry Fox.
Stilton
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#3 Posted on 12.4.05 2241.33
Reposted on: 12.4.12 2241.44
I've participated in the Terry Fox Run every year since I was thirteen, and it is a tradition I intend to stick with. If Terry could run over almost two-thousand miles on one leg, we can at least do our part once a year.
JoshMann
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#4 Posted on 12.4.05 2334.26
Reposted on: 12.4.12 2335.55
The year after I lost my grandmother to cancer, I was living in Ontario and participated in 2001. Without getting overdramatic about it, there was a bit of catharsis in doing it. Plus the fact that I was able to raise $100 individually to the foundation was worth the effort.

HMD
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#5 Posted on 13.4.05 0118.32
Reposted on: 13.4.12 0121.20
Know I'm a little late, but had to weigh in.

Even if you were to put the heroics aside, the big-picture battle he was fighting aside, you still have to be impressed with him. A marathon a day. Most able-bodied, finely-tuned athletes can't do that. I don't know if it contributed to his relapse, haven't seen any research or infortmation on that, but my point is, even by that strictly athletic criteria alone he's legendary.

I think Terry's the only idolized figure in our culture who has never become an iconic misrepresentation of the original person. He's never been embellished into this idealized paragon, a fate which has befallen so many of the great figures we have come to admire. That is to his credit, because there was nothing to embellish. No idealism is necessary. He was exactly what we say he was, and there's no hyperbole in seeing him that way.

I know I'll be running this year too.
fuelinjected
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#6 Posted on 13.4.05 1153.29
Reposted on: 13.4.12 1157.00
His brother Darrell was on the radio here yesterday and he said that Terry never told his family of his plans. He trained for months in secret for the marathon and whenever anyone would see him, he would just say that he was training for the Vancouver Marathon.

He also said that if Terry were doing this today, he would have probably been able to do even better because he would lose so much water weight every day that his the prosthetic would cause blistering and bleeding from not fitting right. He was in tremendous amounts of pain but he just kept on going.
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