Don Chapman introduced Fred Fox, brother of a national hero Terry Fox. Fred led us on a journey as he lived it during the late 1970’s when Terry was first diagnosed with cancer and had to have his leg surgically removed, his recovery and the journey he started.
Terry was an average kid who dreamed big and set off on a journey in 1980 to run across Canada to raise some money for cancer research. He started in St. John’s NFLD in April and made it through the Maritimes, Quebec and most of Ontario, before his journey came to end on Sept.1 as his cancer had returned. Fred read us entries from Terry’s journal form the previous days of August 29th and 30th. Terry’s dream of raising $1M had changed along his route and that became $24M which at the time was $1 for every person in Canada. Today the Terry Fox Foundation has raised in excess of $750M and continues to grow, even though there are many other cancer fundraisers. Fred now is a director with the Foundation as are his brother Darrell and sister Judy. His parents Rolly and Betty Fox have passed away in the last few years and now it is up to Terry’s siblings to keep the dream of finding a cure for cancer going. Fred also mentioned his daughter has become involved.
Fred praised our local committee and volunteers as they have been in the forefront of fundraising across the nation as they have raised $2M.
Fred ended with a thought... 1 inspires many as a spark ignites a flame.