Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada's west coast. As an active teenager involved in many sports, in 1977 Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated six inches above the knee.
The night before his operation, Terry read an article about an amputee who had competed in the New York Marathon. Indirectly that story, along with Terry's observations of the intense suffering of cancer patients, set the stage for what would ultimately become the most important decision of his young life.
In 1980, Terry Fox inspired the nation by attempting to run across Canada with an artificial leg. He called this journey the Marathon of Hope. Its mission was to raise money and awareness for cancer research in Canada.
With little to no attention, Terry started his journey in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980. Although it was difficult to get attention in the beginning, hype soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to rise. He ran 43 kilometers a day through Canada's Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and Ontario.
September 1, 1980 -- it was a dull day in Northern Ontario when Terry Fox ran his last miles. After 18 miles he started coughing and felt a pain in his chest. Terry knew how to cope with pain. He'd despite it as he always had before, he'd simply keep going until the pain went away.
For 3,339 miles, from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada's eastern most city on the shore of the Atlantic, he'd run through six provinces and now was two-thirds of the way home. He'd run close to a marathon a day, for 144 days.
The parents’ dilemma, the visuals of their anxiety and fears were captured very clearly in this clip. The stills of Michael connected to the breathing tubes, having his head prepped for surgery etc., visually evoked the magnitude of what the parents and the Michael had to go through. However, the recovery and progress was an awesome success story filled with all the elements of an inspirational narrative that not only inspired but educated as
Resection was a process that “involved cutting open the limb, sawing out the damaged bone, and then closing the incision” (Jones, 1). Resection allows the patient to keep his limbs but it requires a great ordeal of time and skill. This also contributed to the common practice of amputation during the war. But there were cases where surgeons did use this method. Terry J. Jones said in his NY Times article, “resections were used more frequently after surgeons learned that amputations had a much higher mortality rate” (Jones, 1). In another article by Corydon Ireland, it describes Mitchell Adam’s, a Harvard lecturer, grandfather who served as a volunteer surgeon during the Civil War. In the article, “Adams was not a champion of hasty amputations, but argued for excision and other limb-saving measures. And he describes the everyday pressures of a country practice in Framingham, Mass” (Ireland, 1). This meant that not all surgeons at the time only wanted to amputate but strived for alternate methods. This new knowledge shows that some surgeons were more dedicated to thinking about the well-being of their patients than others and this opens up to other possibilities that may have occurred during the war. This allows an image to come to mind of a surgeon diligently operating on a soldier with care and compassion. However, even though there may be many possibilities, we can’t truly know every event that occurs during a
Him and his wife drove 4,000 miles to get to a dairy farm by Fair Banks, Alaska. It took them about 10 days to make the trip by car. During their trip they were able to see the Rocky Mountains. While they drove by the Rockies they saw mountain goats. During their few month stay in Alaska, they lived in a log cabin on the dairy farm. Bud was able to hunt moose and bear which he enjoyed.
Longboat ran his first competitive race at age 17, although he didn't win, it gave him a feel of what it is like to run and pushed him to improve his strength and endurance. The training paid off for Longboat, winning him the Victorian Day race, with more than 400 yards ahead of the nearest competitor. The next race for Longboat would be the Hamilton Herald Around the Bay race along a 19-mile course. When he lined up at the starting line, no one there had ever heard of him, and he was given one hundred to one odds at winning. By the end of the race, everyone knew who he was. Next, Longboat had in his sights was the Boston Marathon, and he won the race with a record time. With the Boston Marathon won, it was time to face the London Olympics. Sadly, he could not finish this race due to the heat. Another one of Longboat's accomplishments came when war broke out, and he signed up for war and was a messenger running between command post delivering messages when communication was down. Throughout all these achievements, they didn't come easy, and Longboat had to overcome many
to scouts and capturing the hearts of Canadians everywhere. All this led up to him becoming the
Throughout his life Ben Carson faced many trials and tribulations. All of which forced him to make life altering decisions. Going from a “disturbed” child and adolescent to an outstanding surgeon society would think Dr. Carson made the right choices, but along the way Ben wasn’t so sure.
This is when he wanted to do something for those with cancer, to give them hope. After reading about another man with an amputation that ran a marathon, Terry decided to run across the country to raise awareness for cancer as he had taken up running in his earlier life. He started his training, taking it step by step, slowly increasing the amount he runs per day. Finally, in 1980 he started the Marathon of Hope. He started by dipping his right leg into the Atlantic Ocean in St. Johns, Newfoundland and ran. At first nobody really knew what he was doing or why. He had raised little money and had to fight against extreme conditions. To uplift his spirits a town in Newfoundland donated ten thousand dollars and the CEO of the large company Sharp offered to donate two dollars for every mile Terry ran. Once he made it to Ontario, many knew about his marathon and many often ran with him if they saw him. He met with many of Canadian celebrities including the Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler. The latter of the 3 donated as well.
An ideal image comes into one’s mind when the word hero is heard; a visual is then created of different superheroes or even firefighters saving people, but what about Terry Fox? Terry ran across Canada with an amputated leg to raise awareness and money for people battling with cancer. He is remembered for being a Canadian hero and an inspirational character for everyone. Terry is one of the greatest athletes who would accept and overcome what the world threw at him. Running across Canada was his way of showing the world that he was not going down without putting up a fight.
at Bern, Switzerland. It was not what he wanted but it would give him leisure
...tentially be cured with a one surgery. He uses this story of death to share that life is short. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by Dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” He uses repetition and parallelism to drive his message home.
Libya to Bactria, East to West. Even though he had died while planning his next campaign, he
I believe that running has been a gift to me. I sacrifice my body’s comfortability to the activity, and the merciful torture presents me with so much more. It provides me with a lucid state of mind. When some people run, they focus solely on the discomfort and fail to acknowledge the numerous benefits that running offers. If the world truly embraced the sublime activity, then it would be a much happier and healthier place. Every step that I have taken with every stride has molded me into the man that I am today.
to do a trek across the United States. When he reached the state of Arizona, he
West Indies, all over the world. My Father had been to sea as well as