Terry Fox Run honours a hero

By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2023.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Lorien Johansen, right, holds onto Terry Fox during opening ceremonies of the Terry Fox Run at Legacy Park on Sunday. Johansen is one of the co-chairs of the annual event which attracted a strong contingent to run, walk and raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation. The Marathon of Hope runner was named after his uncle, a resident of Lethbridge since 1977.

Al Beeber
LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Nathan Neudorf remembers hearing about Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope when he was a  Grade One student back in 1980. Neudorf’s family lived on the lower mainland of B.C. at the time and for him, Terry Fox was a hero.

The UCP MLA for Lethbridge East was among dozens of people who turned out on Sunday at Legacy Park for the 43rd annual Terry Fox Run. 

Those people who ran or walked also included Lethbridge West NDP MLA Shannon Phillips and city councillor Belinda Crowson who is a cancer survivor herself.

“We all knew Terry Fox, we all sort of grew up with the Terry Fox Run and I can this honestly, he became a hero of mine personally as well as a national hero because of what he did. It’s a little different now – people know who he was. I grew up a hop, skip and a jump from Port Coquitlam,” said Neudorf.

“The fact that part of his family lives here in Lethbridge, I feel the double connection. This transcends everything – he’s truly a Canadian hero,” added Neudorf.

Crowson just finished cancer treatment in April and “talking to my health care team throughout the whole thing, they’re up on the latest research but that research doesn’t happen without fundraising,” said Crowson.

“This is something now that means a lot more because now I get to be on Terry’s Team with the red shirt,” added Crowson who also gave opening remarks to the crowd on behalf of mayor and council.

And of course, Terry Fox’s uncle Terry Fox was at the run – the second he’d done since Friday when he participated in the Green Acres Foundation walk around Henderson Lake.

Lorien Johansen, one of the event co-chairs for the past five years, held onto Fox during the opening ceremonies and told the Herald later more volunteers are needed to help stage the event. 

Bobbie Fox, co-chair of the run, said this was the second year it has been staged at Legacy Park which has become the new venue for the event.

Before the run began, this year’s effort had already brought in $4,800 online which doesn’t include the amounts brought in onsite Sunday, an amount which Fox said would probably be significant.

In her opening remarks to the audience, Fox said “today Lethbridge continues its long history of sharing and supporting Terry’s dream for a world without cancer through our fundraising efforts.

“On Sept. 1 1980 Terry was forced to stop his Marathon of Hope after learning his cancer had returned. Even though his run was over, he never quit on this dream,” said Fox.

“The day Terry stopped was the day we started showing our commitment to fundraising for cancer research so that our loved ones, our friends and ourselves can live in a world without cancer. Your contribution leaves our volunteer team humbled and grateful,” said Fox.

Lethbridge over the past 43 years has $491,290 since Sept. 14, 1980, Fox said to applause, “which all started when Lethbridge folks crowded into the Mayor Magrath McDonalds to hand in their pledges,” Fox added.

She called ‘Uncle Terry’ to the stage, telling the audience he is a three-time cancer survivor who has put in countless hours “sharing his memories of his nephew with school children across southern Alberta during their Terry Fox school runs, given many media interviews and raised thousands upon thousands of dollars to further cancer research.”

Neudorf, in his official remarks, said “when you’re in Grade One you really don’t know that many people outside your family but everybody knew Terry Fox and growing up in that era doing the Terry Fox Run every year through elementary school and beyond, I loved his legacy, I love who he was and what he means to Canada.”

Phillips told the audience “we know that through the efforts of people raising money for the Terry Fox Foundation that fewer and fewer people have to go through that harrowing journey (of cancer) or the pain can be lessened.”

She researched the type of cancer Fox suffered from and in his era all patients were treated by amputation. The cure rate was 10 per cent and almost all victims died within a year.

“Today there’s a 60 to 70 per cent cure rate, more than 90 per cent don’t have amputation and most of them go on to live full, productive, healthy lives. That’s what research does,” added Phillips.

“Those kind of outcomes are because Canadians rallied around Terry Fox and made sure that his legacy lived on in cancer research,” added Phillips.

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