Terry Fox

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice really, get busy living or get busy dying."

Andy Dufresne-Shawshank Redemption

When Terry Fox died, I was 9 years old. I remember where I was when I heard it on the radio. I remember feeling the loss and disbelief. I was young, but I was not too young to understand how sad it is when someone who gives us hope  for a better world leaves us. It felt like something beautiful was over. 

Many Canadians and people all over the world  have felt inspired by the story of Terry Fox, but none more than those of us who live in his community. Today, many runners took part in the second annual Terry Fox Training Run. Everyone knows the story of how Terry Fox ran marathon a day from St. John's Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario in his Marathon of Hope, but few people think about the training he had to do to complete this amazing feat. The route for this run is inspired by a 10 mile route that Terry completed frequently during his training which goes literally, right by my house. After the amputation of his right leg, he learned to run again at the track where my kids learned to ride their bikes. This track is also part of the run. I take great pride in the fact that I live where he trained. 

It would be very easy for me to go on and on about the amazing physical feat it would have been for Terry Fox to complete the training to run across Canada ( never mind doing it in 42 kilometer installments) ( which it was) or the amazing courage he showed in facing his illness and completing his goal ( which he did), or how he was instrumental in changing attitudes toward people with disabilities ( which he was), or that his sheer will and determination was ( and continues to be ) an inspiration for anyone trying to overcome adversity (which it is). Writing about what an amazing and selfless person he was would be very easy. What is most interesting to me today, though, is how despite his terrible prognosis, he stayed focused on his goal. He was sick. He lost his leg from cancer, but he still remained focused. He could have stayed home and felt sorry for himself. Or, he could have gone to a beach and drank some mai-tais.  I don''t think anyone would have begrudged him of this, but he chose instead to get busy living. But he did more than just get busy living, he meant to help others to get busy living. He thought beyond his own life. Not a lot of people do that.  

The distinction between living to live and living to die is small. We all will die. So what are we doing if we are not just filling up time before then? The difference is more than semantic. The difference is how we approach what we do. When my father was first diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis he told me he was not going to just sit in his chair and wait to die. He sure hasn't so far. He gets out for exercise every day. He has been working madly on a book that tells the story of his family. He has been living. We don't all know when we are going to die, but when confronted with a possible end date, I think what we do with the time tells a lot about our character.

In the last year of his life, Terry Fox chose to live in the most selfless way. He wanted to change what people knew about cancer so he could create different endings. One of my husband's favourite movie quotes is from Gladiator when Maximus says: "Brothers, what we do in life...echoes in eternity." And when we think about Terry Fox, what he did echoes on and on. Because of what he did, and the money that the Terry Fox Foundation raised, countless lives have been changed.  When Terry was diagnosed with metastatic osteosarcoma, the survival rate was less than five percent.  Today it is over 80 percent and amputation is almost unheard of. And, this is because one young man, who was average guy in many ways, did something extraordinary with last days of his life.

For the first time in my training this past week I had some aches and pains that affected my training. I had to stop during my tempo run ( making it a non-tempo run) because I had a painful muscle spasm in my right calf. Luckily, I was able shake it off, stretch it out and hobble slowly back. Even more lucky, after ice, heat, Ibuprofen, and stretching, I seem to be back to normal and was able to complete my 29 km long run today with no problem. I did a lot of complaining about this when I got home from my botched tempo run, but the discomfort I felt was nothing compared to the pains Terry Fox had to endure. He suffered shin splints, and inflamed knee. He suffered from tendonitis and developed cysts on his stump.  Still he kept going. I am a healthy, 2 legged woman, and I am not running a marathon every day and I still get aches and pains. I can only imagine the kind of pain he felt every day. If Terry Fox can do what he did, I can certainly complete one 42.2 kilometer run, right?

So today, I dedicate my run and my blog to Terry Fox. Thank you Terry Fox for choosing to, and inspiring us all to "get busy living."

"It occurs very rarely in the life of a nation that the courageous spirit of one person unites all people in the celebration of his life and in the mourning of his death... We do not think of him as one who was defeated by misfortune but as one who inspired us with the example of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity."  

Pierre Trudeau, 1981