Early yesterday, British Columbia lost a great woman. Betty Fox, the mother of a brave young man who ran to find a cure for cancer, died peacefully with her family close by.
In 1980, her son Terry set out to run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research, only months after completing cancer treatment, including the amputation of his right leg above the knee. Tragically, he had to abandon his dream half way across the country when the cancer that had taken his limb metastasized to his lungs. Terry Fox died in June, 1981.
Mrs. Fox took up the Marathon of Hope torch, turning it into an international force.
Since then, survival rates for malignancies once feared as a certain death sentence have improved greatly, as a result of advancements in treatment. Of that, I am living proof.
My first battle with cancer began in the spring of 2003, when I was diagnosed with a tumour on my right tonsil that also involved the lymph nodes in my neck. I endured a long summer of radiation treatments that left me emaciated.
I was one of the first six patients in British Columbia to be accepted into a program studying the efficacy of intensity-modulated-radiation-therapy (IMRT), the treatment of choice now for most head and neck cancers.
I then enjoyed four years of relative good health. I got back on my bicycle and trained with determination to fulfill my long-held dream of riding the prestigious Paris-Brest-Paris marathon cycling event.
In February, 2007, less than two months before the first qualifier—a 200 kilometre brevet—the cancer returned. I was not so much terrified this time as pissed off.
“You know what I have planned for this summer?” I asked my doctor, when he gave me the results of the biopsy.
“You’re doing that bicycle thing in France, right?” “When is that?”
“August the 20th.”
“All being well, I can get you into surgery [the only option, this time] by June,” Dr. Pathak promised.
“No, you don’t understand,” I said. “The first qualifier is in a month.”
The surgeon found a cancellation on the schedule for March 9th and I underwent radical surgery to remove the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck and a part of my tongue.
On April 7, I rode the first event of the local series, just minutes slower than my fastest time for that route, and went on to successfully qualify for PBP by completing the rest of the events of 300, 400, and 600 kilometres.
I recount my story only to credit the Marathon of Hope, the torch that Terry kindled and his mother sustained, for lighting my way through the struggle that this terrible disease demands. In my darkest moments, I remembered Terry, through the iconic media records of his highway odyssey.
It is also conceivable that the research that the Terry Fox Foundation supports played a part in my survival. The Fox family’s work has raised more than half a billion dollars in Terry’s name.
But I believe the greatest legacy that this brave family has bequeathed is the memory of Terry Fox’s grace in the face of adversity. In that way, he is eternal, and the mother that gave him life, and no doubt a key part of his resiliency and character, lives on as well.
Condolences can be forwarded to the Fox family at the link above.
“It occurs very rarely in the life of a nation that the courageous spirit of one person unites all people in the celebration of his life and in the mourning of his death…. We do not think of him as one who was defeated by misfortune, but as one who inspired us with the example of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.” ~Pierre Elliot Trudeau
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I started my bicycle odyssey in 1994 in Ontario at the end of March, I had never been so cold in my whole life. My feet were frozen solid along with my ears and face, of course I questioned my sanity. But home was a long way away, so turning tail wasn’t an easy option.
I was on highway 17 heading towards Thunder Bay when I saw the Terry Fox Highway label on my map of Ontario. That night I looked in my guide book to Canada about where the name came from, it turned out to be an inspirational read. It made me review my situation, my thoughts were that if a man with one leg and cancer could run across Canada, then surely a man with two legs could cycle across without much bother. Eventually the weather warmed up and the frostbite thawed, it was painful for a while but nothing fell off!
It is sad to hear of the passing of Betty Fox, but the good work she and many others have done for cancer research and it’s sufferers will continue to live on long into the future.
Personally I am lucky enough to never have suffered from the disease, however my mother died of lung cancer in 1996 (half of her 16 siblings also died of some form of cancer), so I am aware that I am genetically predisposed to cancer. This fact was brought closer to home in 2001 when my brother was diagnosed with Melanoma, he was put on Intefreron for over a year and I am glad to say that 10 years on he is still alive and kicking.
He is proud to tell people of an incident between a friend and his surgeon. The surgeon asked “When did he die?” his friend replied “He is still alive!”. The only worry is that the primary source has never been found.
We can only hope that some day a cure can be found for all cancers, advancements are being made every day and man forms of cancer are now treatable. My step-daughter id doing her PhD in cancer research specifically looking for genetic markers in prostate cancer and she has made some new discoveries.
There is always someone to give us perspective on this long-and-winding road.
People like your step-daughter amaze and humble me. I also think we need to fund research and demand political action on environmental triggers.
Why is there an epidemic of pediatric cancers? This is the most disturbing thing of all.
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