Royal B.C. Museum design worker Steve Lewis has fuzzy childhood memories of Terry Fox running through the Newfoundland town where he lived with his family.
But Lewis has a sharper image of Fox’s artificial leg tattooed on his right calf muscle. It’s meant as a tribute to the gritty courage of the man who decided to run across Canada to raise awareness about cancer after losing his leg to the disease.
“Terry was a personal hero of mine and I decided to get something to make it sink home,” said the 40-year-old runner and successful finisher of seven marathons and one ultra marathon.
In 1980, for 143 consecutive days, a 22-year-old Fox ran the equivalent of a marathon, 26 miles or 42 kilometres, every day. Beginning in Newfoundland, he ran as far as Thunder Bay, Ont., a total of 5,373 kilometres, before a reappearance of the cancer forced him to stop. Fox, who grew up in Port Coquitlam, died June 28, 1981.
Wednesday marks the 37th anniversary of the day Terry Fox dipped his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic Ocean and began what he called a “Marathon of Hope,” so it’s a fitting day for the Royal B.C. Museum to open a special exhibit — Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada.
“Terry Fox is the very definition of the Canadian hero,” said Jack Lohman, museum CEO. “He personifies those values of courage, determination, selflessness and humility.”
The exhibit features the largest collection of artifacts, letters and written testimonials assembled to tell the story of Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope. There’s the glass jug of Atlantic water collected at the start of the run, two of his prosthetic legs, battered sneakers and hundreds of handwritten letters collected from school children living in the towns through which the marathon passed.
Bill Vigars was just starting a job with the Ontario division of the Canadian Cancer Society when his supervisor told him to check out “this kid” who had lost a leg to cancer and was running across the country.
Vigars, now retired and living in White Rock but still volunteering with the Terry Fox Foundation, said it was the start of a relationship whose memory he still cherishes.
He said Canadians know about Terry Fox and his physical courage. But few appreciate the emotional load that people with cancer stories, their own or those of friends or family, would hand over to him.
Vigars still recalls one woman who approached Fox at a stop just east of Toronto to tell him he was running for her son.
“Terry looked around and said: ‘Oh, where is he?’ ” said Vigars. “She said: ‘He died last week.’ ”
“I broke down,” he said. “But that sort of thing happened every day for Terry and all that emotion and feeling was carried on his shoulders. For him to carry that and give people some hope and a little peace was something I have always admired.”
