Monday, September 08, 2008

Simon to run in Terry Fox thingamajig

Simon is in some sort of Canadian foot race where he'll be raising money to research cancer. Leaguers should support Simon as he participates in the Terry Fox Run 2008.

Whenever I hear the name of Terry Fox, I am reminded of the set of books called Value Tales my mom got me as a kid about famous people who represented various values and virtues a good little kid was supposed to internalize. Its how I learned about Jackie Robinson as a kid, Terry Fox, Ben Franklin, Harriet Tubman... we must have had three dozen of those books. They came mail order, and it was always a big day when we'd get them in the mail (shortly after we quit getting Sweet Pickles).

I looked it up, and... looks like you parents could be landing these books for your kids. go here. (Terry Fox has, ironically, been left out by the new publishers.)

Anyway, I'll always remember the Terry Fox book because... well, here's Wikipedia on Terry Fox.

So, anyway... you may be a lazy SOB, but Terry wasn't, and Simon isn't... so give a donation, Leaguers.

1 comment:

Simon MacDonald said...

Thanks for the cross promotion. For those of you who don't know who Terry Fox was here is the short version of his story:

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his right leg amputated above the knee.

While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.

Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 26 miles (that's a marathon distance) a day through Canada's Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.

However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 3,339 miles, Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.

The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.

To date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.


Terry Fox is my own personal super hero.