COLUMN: Carillon Flashback March 22, 1991 – Betty Fox visits Southeast schools on Manitoba tour
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2023 (664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Betty Fox, the mother of Terry Fox and chair of the Terry Fox Foundation, visited three schools in southeastern Manitoba last week as part of a whirlwind visit to the province.
Every spring, Fox tours various communities throughout the country, in an effort to thank the students and schools which participate in the annual Terry Fox Run.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fox spent an hour at Roseau Valley School in Dominion City, where she congratulated the school on 14 years of participation in the annual fund-raising run for cancer research.
“Most children in school today weren’t even born when Terry did his run and when he died from cancer. He would have loved the idea of an annual run and how many people participate each year,” Fox explained.
Last year, Manitobans raised $370,000 for cancer research and the Foundation expects to raise more than $15 million this year at over 400 runs held in 55 countries around the world.
Terry Fox was diagnosed with cancer in 1977, while attending Simon Fraser University in his home province of British Columbia. He was only 18 years old, and the athletic young man was devastated when doctors said they had to amputate his right leg just above the knee.
Betty Fox said her son was “stubborn, competitive and loved a challenge,” which prompted him to begin training for a cross-country fund-raising run.
“He trained for 14 months and we would have to plead with him to take a day off.”
In April, 1980, Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean to begin his Marathon of Hope. He ran an average of 26 miles per day before stopping in Thunder Bay, Ontario, when doctors discovered the cancer had spread to his lungs.
Terry Fox died the next year, and his mother said the first run in his name began that September.
“Terry would have wanted everyone to remember how important it is to give to cancer research. He would have been proud of how far medical research into this disease has come.”
Betty Fox also visited schools in St Jean-Baptiste and Emerson, as well as Winkler, Morden, Miami, Crystal City and Winnipeg, during the three-day tour, which wrapped up Thursday.
– with files from Shelley Bialek