Terry Fox and His Contributions for the Canadian and Non-Canadian - Research Paper Example

Terry Fox and His contributions for the Canadian and Non-Canadian Introduction Terrance Stanley Fox widely known as Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete, cancer research activist and social service worker born in Winnipeg in 1958. He suffered from bone cancer and realized lack of adequate cancer research work to provide patients proper treatment of the disease. Fox decide to embark Marathon of Hope that was a cross country run for raising money for conducting research work for cancer. However, he had to shorten his run when the signs of cancer started appearing in his body again after three years and it was discovered that cancer has spread to its lungs (Druick and Kotsopoulos, 2008). He continued his run for 143 days during which he covered 5.373 kilometres in the country. The run ended up his life but gave him worldwide lasting legacy. The essay aims to discuss the contribution of Terry Fox who was an ordinary young man that turned to the national hero in Canada due to his remarkable contributions and efforts to insist Canadians to make some donation for cancer research. His efforts resulted in annual fund raising run in Canada as well as other countries of the world and the funds collected from the run are used for providing cancer patients with better treatment and cure through detailed research work. His contributions not only benefited the Canadians but the people outside the Canada also avail the benefits of the cancer research conducted with the help of funds and public awareness raised by his run (Murphy, 2005). Terry Fox Contributions – The Terry Fox Foundation and Terry Fox Run Fox was a basketball player and distant runner. He played for the Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, high school and Simon Fraser University teams. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer in 1977 due to which his right leg was removed from his body at about six inches about his knee. He however continued to run with the artificial leg and also played wheelchair basketball in Vancouver and also won three national basketball championship events. The time he spent in the hospital was the worst time of his life that he always hated (Chivers, 2009). His experience made him realize that there is very little money spent in Canada for the cancer research that must be raised to bring improvement in the condition of people and help fighting the cancer patient with their disease. He decided to raise money and awareness all over the country to fight against cancer. He decided to insist the Canadians to donate one dollar for the cancer research. He persuades people that when 24 million Canadians will donate just one dollar it will help collecting around 24 million rupee for the cancer research (Leslie, 2011). The beginning of training for the cross country run was very tough for him. He felt down on the floor several time while practicing to run but he never lost his courage and continued his practice and ran over 4,800 kilometre in over a year after which he announced his plan for the cross country run in front of the people. He began the cross country run on the 12th of April 1980. He dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean and began his courageous quest named as Marathon of Hope. In the beginning he arranged little fanfare in Newfoundland and started running equivalent of full marathon every day. When he reached Ontario during his run he has tuned to a national star that had gained the attention and favour of people all over the country. The politicians, athletes, businessmen and people from all other walks of life started supporting his cause and helped him in raising money for cancer research (MacQueen, 2005). He ran around 42 kilometres everyday regardless of harsh weather, freezing rains, winds and snow. When he began the sceptics predict that it would not be possible for Fox to pass New Brunswick but the courageous man made it through and proved all those people wrong in estimating his will power, determination and strength. On the 1st of September, 1980 he faced chest pain and breathing problem that ultimately stopped him from running. He was compelled to end his run outside the Thunder Bay and was sent to the hospital where the doctors diagnosed that cancer has spread to his lungs. The discovery of his disease stopped the run only and the donations kept coming (Leslie, 2011). He announced to stop his run and said Im going to do my very best. Ill fight, I promise I wont give up (Chivers, 2009) but the life didn’t allow him to complete the run and he met his death after nine month on the 28th of June 1981. However, his dream for raising money was not dead with him but he became a figure of inspiration and motivation for the people that embarked the signs of hopes for overcoming the diseases through proper research work. He also became the youngest person to be ever named as a champion of Order of Canada. He also won the Lou Marsh Award and became the top national sportsman of Canada. Moreover, he was also named as Canada’s newsmaker of year in 1980 and 1981 (Murphy, 2005). During the run he raised around $1.7 million for cancer research and till his death $24.17 million were collected that surpassed his target of donation collection. During his last days in the hospitals he got the letters from many people that informed him that his efforts were great source of inspiration for them and his dream would be taken forward through annual fund raising run for cancer (Druick and Kotsopoulos, 2008). The president of Four Season Hotel also wrote letter to Fox and offered him help in making his dream come true through the annual fundraising run called the Terry Fox run. There was some ground rules also set for the run that there would be no winner and no awards given in the run but it would be a non-competitive run with the single goal of raising cancer fund without corporate sponsorship. After his death he was not only honoured with the annual run but several parks, buildings and roads were also named after him across Canada. The legacy and country wide support and appraisal that he won with his courageous efforts proved to be never ending that adds millions of dollar to the cancer research fund every year. In 30 years of terry fox run an amount of around $553 million has been collected for the cancer research. The first terry fox run was held after two and half months of his death in which over 300,000 Canadians participated. It was arranged at 760 sites across Canada that raised $3.5 million fund (Leslie, 2011). The spirit was soon spread to all over the world and at present the terry fox run is arranged every year in different countries of the world in which millions of people participate. It has become the world largest one day fund raising run for the cancer research that succeeds in collecting over C$ 500 million in the name of Terry Fox. The terry fox foundation was also established in 1988 that manages the run and approves the grants for the application for his cancer research work. The funds collected through the terry fox run are used to conduct research work in over 1,100 research projects in the country (MacQueen, 2005). Conclusion Terry Fox saw a dream of raising money as well as awareness among the people about cancer and his dream came true in form of Terry Fox Run that is now arranged annually. The funds rose from the run help in making advancements in the imaging technology worldwide. As a result of more research work in the field it has become possible to increase life expectancy of people having advanced stage prostate cancer. Other advancement and research outcomes have allowed developing screening techniques that help improving survival rates among the patients of lung cancer. It implies that the benefits of Terry Fox efforts were not limited to Canadians only but people across the world experience the outcomes of his efforts of increased awareness about cancer and improved research work funded by the money raised through the Terry Fix run. References Chivers, S. (2009). “Ordinary People: Reading the Trans Canadian Terry Fox”, Canadian Literature, autumn 2009, Issue 202, p80-94 Druick, Z. and Kotsopoulos. (2008). A. Programming Reality. Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press Leslie, S. (2011). “A Heros Journey”. Canadas History, Jun/Jul2011, Vol. 91 Issue 3, p18-26 MacQueen, K. (2005). “The Relentless Terry Fox”. Macleans, 4/4/2005, Vol. 118 Issue 14, p22-26 Murphy, A. (2005). Great Canadians. Canada: Folklore Publishing Article Summaries 1. The Relentless Terry Fox The article The Relentless Terry Fox written by MacQueen, Ken was published in Macleans in 2005. The article emphasise upon the efforts of the runner Terry Fox. The article discusses the efforts of Fox to run across Canada with the hope of collecting money from people for supporting the cancer research. He suffered from cancer in just 18 years and began the marathon of hope when he was just 22. The author describes the journey of Fox and discusses the main events like his meetings with some important people and support provided by some organizations towards his cause. The article tells that it was effort of a single person that turned into a common cause due to the participation and support of different people and organizations. The author also talks about the Canadian Cancer Society who supported the cause of Fox that ultimately brought him the attention of the media groups. The intentions and motivation inside the personality of Fox has also been discussed in the article in the light of the experiences of some close friends of Fox. The author tells that Fox struggles very hard with his disease and it was not an easy job for him to start the marathon for a public cause. The article appraised his effort and tells that it was due to strong determination and courage of Fox that he despite his disease he decided to start the marathon and ran several kilometres across the country. The people were also motivated to donate in his cause by inspiring from his courage and dedication. 2. A Heros Journey The article A Heros journey written by Leslie Scrivener was published in Canadas History in 2001. The article basically aims to give tribute to the dedicated and courageous efforts of Terry Fox who initiated the mission of raising funds for cancer research through a Marathon for Hope. The article discusses the life and contributions of the runner and cancer patient Terry Fox and his attempt to run across Canada. The article provides an insight to the emotions, feelings and sentiments of Terry Fox that motivated him to begin the run. It talks about the tough time that he spent while preparing himself to initiate the marathon and motivate people to donate for his cause. The article included the name of people and entities that became involved in the efforts of Fox in arranging his marathon for the cancer research work. The author also threw light upon the role of the Canadian Cancer Society in supporting the cause of Fox and also talks about the media coverage that the marathon got from different media people and groups. The author also captures the expressions of some childhood friends and other people closer to Terry Fox to tell the readers about the tough struggle Fox led in managing the marathon with his disease. The article also tells how the people widely appraised and supported his cause and not only make donations but also decided to take his mission forward by arranging the marathon on annual basis. 3. Ordinary People: Reading the Trans Canadian Terry Fox The article Ordinary People: Reading the Trans Canadian Terry Fox written by Chivers Sally was published in Canadian Literature in 2009. The author tells the tale of cancer victim terry fox that became great source of inspiration and motivation for the people of Canada and motivated them to donate for cancer research in order to ease the cancer patients through better cure and prevention measures. The article tells the reception of fox efforts by the media and other people and states that people were in great need of people like Fox who can dedicate their potential for a noble cause and could inspire the people for taking part in it. The article tells how people began to know about the marathon and reacted towards the cause. Most of the responses of the people very favourable and widely people were inspired from the noble intentions and cause of a cancer victim. The article tells about the rules and regulation set for the marathon when it was decided that it would be held on the annual basis. It also tells about the eligibility of people to participate in the run. The author tells that he really deserves to be discusses and appraised because people with such noble causes must be given due attention and proper appreciation. Read More