Canadian Heroes
   


Terry Fox remains Canada's greatest hero

By Suman Lakhi
Winnipeg, Manitoba


To Terry Fox, for what he has given to Canada and to the world.

Hero: a person admired for great or noble deeds

When people think of a hero, their mind sways to dragon slayers, or handsome princes rescuing their princess from an evil witch or stepmother. What about Terry Fox, a one legged runner who ran across Canada to save the lives of children and other cancer patients? Perhaps my writing could be read by another cancer patient, waiting to be helped or dreaming to do something like Terry Fox. Terry Fox put up his own life to save you and others from cancer. If you do not have cancer, he still saved you in a way because he raised $1.7 million to go toward cancer research and protect you. Ill-fated, a hero could not protect or rescue himself.

This is how his story goes. One morning in March 1977, Terrence Stanley Fox, 18, could not get out of his bed because of a searing pain in his right knee. The night before at his high school Terry Fox had circled the track despite this same pain, a pain that had started weeks and weeks before, and would not go away.

He thought at the same time it was a cartilage problem, but he did not want to quit the basketball season. He was a guard on the freshman basketball team at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, a position he had earned through hard work and skill. On that morning in March, in a small ranch-style home in Port Coquitlam, the pain was too great for him to move. His father, Rolly Fox, took him for a thorough medical examination. After a series of tests, a doctor walked into Terry's hospital room, and with his parents standing by, Terry was told he had osteogenic sacroma of the right knee, the most common form of rare bone cancer. The leg must be amputated as soon as possible because the cancer was dangerous and would spread quickly. At the age of eighteen, the tragedy was enormous.

The night before the operation, three days after the diagnosis, his former basketball coach came to see him with an article about a one-legged runner who had finished the New York Marathon. "I had a dream that night," Terry was to say many times throughout the marathon, "that I would run across Canada. I didn't even know if I'd be able to walk but it was something that never left me, that dream, that fantasy."

#1 Doesn't your heart wrench? Terry Fox did not even know if he would come out alive, but he had a dream, and a bigger wish was to complete this dream. It is a good thing that Terry held fast to his dream or else his life could have ended the way Langston Hughes ended his poem Dreams. "Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow."

It was his uncertainty of surviving that caused him to become more determined, and that is where it began. The Marathon of Hope--Terry's decision to make a difference--started off in St. John's, Newfoundland and ceased in Thunder Bay when the doctors had discovered that the cancer had spread into his lungs. Terry was then hospitalized. Nevertheless, Terry touched millions of people not only nationwide, but internationally too! He might not have finished what he started but he raised over $1.7 million for cancer research. Terry Fox was also the first person who began a
nationwide fundraiser in Canada. He should be acknowledged for this.

Terry Fox was patriotic and loving; he was not bitter toward his disability. He did not think that because of his disability he could not live the way he wanted to. Instead, he decided to show the world what a disabled person could do: Anything!

Terry Fox was a real Canadian hero, although he wasn't the rugged-looking man with a washboard stomach and blond hair and blue eyes. Everybody can learn from him. He taught people what a Canadian needs to do. They need to put their own problems aside and help others, especially in a great nation like Canada, where everybody should work as a community. Terry Fox ran halfway across Canada limping in pain, exhausted and having doubts. Nevertheless, he went on until the very last minute because he had a dream and he wanted to fulfill it.

He gave his mind, soul and body to his nation, Canada. This is a true hero. Terry Fox ran for humanity not only for himself. The Canadian government can recognize a hero because Terry Fox was awarded with many honourable awards like: Canadian of the Year, Companion of the Order of Canada, Citation of Honour and even an award from the United States of America: The Sword of Hope.

Terry Fox was a great and honourable hero whom nobody can forget. Terry was right when he said "Somewhere the hurting must stop . . . " He said this to everybody and he wanted everybody to help the Cancer Society of Canada. (Please do help the Cancer Society of Canada). Terry Fox raised the pride of being a Canadian, throughout everybody living in Canada; young or elderly. He inspired millions of people around the world, he drew nationwide attention and raised $ 1.7 million. Gripped by an outpouring of emotion, Canadians donated an additional $23 million to the fund. For his efforts he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and a B.C. mountain was named after him. Thousands annually participated in a fund-raising run named after him.

#2 To me, it seems like Canadians are finishing Terry's dream.

We all need a role model like Terry Fox in our lives. Terry Fox keeps reminding us that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it!

Even if I do not win this contest Terry Fox will always be considered a hero in my eyes for eternity.



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