A Canadian Hero He was born Terrance Stanley Fox on July 28, 1958, in Winnipeg and moved with his family to Port Coquitlam in 1966. "He graduated from Port Coquitlam High School:'' says Leslie Scrivener in her book Terry Fox: His Story , "with straight A s but for one B in English." Then he went on to Simon Fraser University to study kinesiology. He tried out for the junior varsity basketball team, where his coaches noted that while other players maybe had better skills, young Terry Fox "out-gutted" them. He made the team.In late 1976 Terry began to experience unusual pain in his right knee. He underwent a series of tests and on March 5 was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the bone called osteogenic sarcoma. To save his life, his leg would have to be amputated.
He was eighteen years old.The operation was scheduled for March 9. On the night before, Terry was visited by a crowd of friends and well-wishers, along with his family. Among the visitors was Terry Fleming, Terry''s high-school basketball coach. Fleming brought a copy of Runners World magazine. He had marked a certain story, a profile of a one-legged runner named Dick Traum who had competed in the New York Marathon. The Traum story convinced Terry that he would be able to run again, and it inspired him to take on a challenge that would eventually raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.His goal became nothing less than to run across the country and raise one dollar in research donations from every Canadian.
"I don''t know why I dreamed what I did," Terry said once. "It''s because I''m competitive. I''m a dreamer. I like challenges. I don''t give up. When I decided to do it, I knew I was going to go all out." (He showed that determination when he participated in a wheelchair-basketball team from 1977 to 1980, a slot he got after being recruied by Rick Hansen. Part of Terry''s selfdesigned exercise routine was to push his chair along Gaglardi Way, a long, steep climb up Burnaby Mountain toward Simon Fraser University at the top.
)After the operation and sixteen months of chemotherapy treatment, Terry began to train and, eventually, to run daily - painfully short distances at first, but increasing steadily as he developed strength and technique. His running style was his own: two hops on his remaining leg, then a long stride on his artificial leg while lifting his torso and shoulders for leverage. After fourteen months of training he had obtained sponsorship and planned his route, and on April 12, 1980, he was in St. John''s, Newfoundland. He dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic, then turned his face to the west to run across the nation. Terry''s dream, the "Marathon of Hope," began.At first there was little media attention outside Port Coquitlam itself, but as he survived dangerous road hazards, semi-trailers that almost blew him into ditches, hailstones the size of golf balls, police barring him from parts of the Trans-Canada Highway, and trouble with his artificial leg, the image of this courageous young man and the story of his crusade began to take hold of the public''s imagination. Media excitement built, and by the time he reached Ontario, Terry Fox was famous.
He marked his twenty-second birthday in Gravenhurst, Ontario . a day on which he ran only 20 miles (32 kilometres), instead of the daily 26 he aimed for. The trickle of coins had become an outpouring of dollars-the Ontario division of the Canadian Cancer Society was getting five hundred pledges and donations a day. On Terry''s arrival in Toronto, the Canadian media was overwhelmingly behind him. Terry Fox had become the news of the day.As his popularity increased, so did the crowds. Schoolchildren lined the streets, contributing their allowances and pledges. Terry overcame shyness and became an eloquent public speaker, raising even more money.
"Knowing that there are people who care about what I''m doing," he said, "that I''m not just running across Canada, that there are people who are giving money to help fight the disease that took my leg and to help other people who are lying down in hospital beds all over the world, it''s a reward."But as his run continued westward through Ontario, Terry began to be bothered by a persistent cough and pain in his chest. His last diary entry was made Sunday, August 31, 1980. On an early September day 18 miles (29 kilometres) outside Thunder Bay, Ontario, Terry''s run came to a tearful end. "I tried as hard as I could, I said I''d never give up and I didn''t."His cancer had metastasized, spreading to his lungs. He had run in constant pain for 143 days, averaging an unbelievable marathon (26 miles or 42 kilometres) a day, and raised $1.7 million for cancer research.
Now he was hospitalized. Canadians flooded Terry with messages of love and support . and continued to contribute money to his campaign. The Port Coquitlam post office reported that during December 1980, Terry got more mail than everyone else in town - residential and business - combined.By the end of December, largely because of a CTV telethon, a total of more than $24 million had been raised. Terry''s goal of a dollar for every Canadian had been reached and exceeded. He had, as Leslie Scrivener writes, "more than doubled the National Cancer Institute of Canada''s 1980 research allowance."Terry died in Royal Columbian Hospital on June 28, 198 1, a month short of his twenty-third birthday.
His dedication, courage and selflessness are perpetuated through the annual Terry Fox Run and the Terry Fox Foundation. His parents, Betty and Rolly Fox, still work today to keep the Marathon of Hope alive.The first Terry Fox Memorial Run was held September 13, 1981 at 880 sites across Canada with more than 300,000 participants. They ran, walked, cycled, roller-bladed, swam and wheeled - and raised $3.5 million. Unique ways were invented to raise money. Residents of a Newfoundland seniors home had a rocking chair "rockathon," raising money through pledges, One group of young people had Jello-bath "sit-ins." Canadian peacekeepers in Rwanda held a run.
Beginning in the early ''90s a deaf man in Prince Rupert began going door to door annually for the cause. He collected more than $39,000 in 1994 and was up to nearly $47,000 in 1995. That year there were more than 275 runs in fifty countries, raising more than $103 million, the most successful single-day fundraiser for cancer research in the world. To date, nearly $250 million has been raised, virtually all of which has remained in the country of origin to fund innovative cancer research, in accordance with Terry''s wishes. There are now three hundred Terry Fox Run sites in fiftytwo countries, and over a million people run annually.Terry Fox''s honours and awards are too numerous to list in full here, but they include the following. He was named "Canadian of the Year" two years In a row and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada''s highest honour; he received the Order of the Dogwood (British Columbia''s highest award), the Sword of Hope (the American Cancer Society''s highest award) and the Lou Marsh Award for outstanding athletic accomplishment. He was made a freeman of the city of Port Coquitlam.
The Canadian government created a $5 million endowment fund, the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, to provide scholarships in his honour and he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. In 1983 Burrard-Yarrows Shipyard in North Vancouver built an icebreaker named the MV Terry Fox . There is a Mount Terry Fox in the BC Interior, and the Terry Fox Courage Highway runs 83 kilometres (52 miles) between Thunder Bay and Nipigon, Ontario, commemorating the ending of the run. Canada Post has issued two commemorative stamps portraying Terry and monuments have been erected at BC Place in Vancouver, Rideau Square in Ottawa and in Thunder Bay. His high school was named for him, and so is Port Coquitlam''s public library. A statue of Terry by George Pratt stands in front of the library. Many schools, parks and roads continue to be named after him.As 1999 drew to a close, the people of British Columbia overwhelmingly selected Terry as the most heroic figure of the century.
Once in a while someone special comes along who makes us aware of the needs of others. Terry Fox was such a man.(An excellent video documentary, The Life and Times of Terry Fox , is available from the Fox Foundation.) -Written with assistance from Rita Woodman An Early Catastrophe One of the most dramatic, yet little-known stories of the Port Coquitlam area come to light as a result of a major archaeological excavation carried out in the late 1970s at the mouth of the Pitt River. The dig was conducted by Val Patenaude, who today is the curator at the Maple Ridge Museum in Haney. Many local students were lucky enough to be on hand while Ms. Patenoude and local First Nations people worked at the site. Ms.
Patenoude wrote this account of her discoveries especially for this book. Centred on the foot of Pitt River Road, the prehistoric site spanned nearly a kilometre in length. The impending construction of the Mary Hill Bypass was to destroy much of the site and so excavations were conducted to preserve as much information from the site as possible.The earliest dates established for use of the site were nearly 4,500 years ago (around 2500 BC). These dates were associated with a hunting, fishing and gathering culture that occupied what were two small islands with sloughs between them and behind them. Overtime the sloughs silted in and more and more of the site became dry land. For three thousand years the artifact evidence indicates seasonal use for fishing and plant gathering. The tools recovered were made of chipped and ground stone and included many exotic types of materials brought in by the Native occupants.
In addition to tools were decorative items, particularly beads.About fifteen hundred yea.