Truly Brave, Courageous and Determined.

45 years ago today, Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean near St. John's,

Newfoundland, and began his epic Marathon of Hope, in which his goal was to run the equivalent

length of a marathon (26.2 miles) every day across Canada, until he reached the Pacific Ocean near

British Columbia. This young man made it possible, and he was a star athlete in high school, which

certainly meant that he was already in fairly good shape. The sad part of this story was that Terry was

stricken by bone cancer in one of his legs, which at the time left no choice but amputation; however,

that setback was not going to let Terry give up hope, the goal of his monumental Marathon at the time

was to raise one dollar for every Canadian citizen, which was ultimately realized not long before his

premature passing in June of 1981. He also wanted to fulfill his dream of this cross-country challenge

for all of the sick children that he saw and met during his stay in hospital as it related to his leg being

amputated, and being forced to move forward living with his artificial limb, but that was never going

to stop young Mr. Fox to complete his run out to B.C. on the West Coast during 1980. Once Fox got to

Ontario that summer, that is when Canadians really started to take notice and pay attention to what he 

was doing in reaching his goals. Even though I was only seven years old during this historic event, it 

also caught my attention and I was also pulling for Terry to succeed and accomplish his memorable

trek. One of my poems about this fine young man is even included in my poetry book, and I've also

been fortunate enough to see at least two excellent made for TV movies about Terry and his heart-

warming story. There will never be enough adjectives to describe what Terry Fox faced in his young

life and how he dealt with it, his goal was ultimately not reached in completing the Marathon of Hope,

as in September of 1980, he was forced to stop his run because the cancer had returned and spread to

his lungs, in fact this Marathon ended near my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario. A remarkable

young adult with an amazing story of perseverance and resilience, he will never be forgotten, and his

fight continues today in ultimately finding a cure for all forms of cancer. Thank you Terry for all that

you accomplished in your short life of 22 years, you will forever remain an undeniable inspiration and

true legend in Canadian history, rest in eternal peace and thoughts and prayers to your devoted family.