Orillia Terry Fox Run organizers, cancer survivors and members of the OPP gathered with Terry’s older brother, Fred Fox, at OPP General Headquarters in Orillia on Wednesday afternoon.
Among the attendees were OPP retirees who escorted Fox through the province during his 1980 Marathon of Hope. They spoke about the impact Fox had on their lives.
After Fox was met with adversity in Quebec, OPP officers escorted him through the province to ensure his safety.
“You get the call. You’re going to do an escort, and then you get out there and you realize what’s going on. It opens your eyes. You want to be part of it,” said retired OPP officer Carl Eggiman, who escorted Fox along Highway 7. “After I got there and (saw) what this incredible man was doing, I was just so honoured to be part of it.
“Since that time, my wife’s a cancer survivor as well, and … we’re always supporting Terry Fox Runs.”
OPP retiree Mary Hardisty recalled the tremendous effort Fox put in when she was escorting him through Parry Sound.
“There was one part of Highway 69 where it meets Highway 141 going to Rosseau, and it’s just a real big (hill), and it’s five in the morning,” Hardisty said. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘Why don’t you just get in the cruiser? No one will know.’ It was just such a real hardship for him to get up this (hill). He (made) it, but I just thought no one would know, but he would know and he wouldn’t do it.”
Hardisty wrote about her experiences in the 2020 book, Forever Terry, which includes stories from many who were impacted by Fox’s Herculean effort to run across Canada and raise money for cancer research.
Like Eggiman, Fox’s story took on a personal meaning for Hardisty.
Her son, Raymond, is a cancer survivor who was born with a rare blood disorder that later turned into leukemia.
“In 2000, he got accepted into a camp … in Rosseau, and almost 20 years to the day, I’m on Highway 69 and 141 Highway going, ‘Oh, my god, it was 20 years ago, and here we are now — I have a son with cancer.’”
Fred Fox thanked the OPP for its work to keep Terry safe as he travelled across the province, noting their parents worried about Terry “every minute of the day.”
“I remember being in Toronto and running with Terry on University Avenue, and talking about the support that he was getting from the OPP on the highways. It made him so much more comfortable (with) travelling, so it’s great to be able to connect with people who had that connection with Terry 42 years ago, but also the people who are still working … so hard to keep that legacy and dream alive,” he said.
“That’s what we’re all about, is saying thank you to everybody.”
The gathering followed a “Breakfast for Champions” attended by cancer survivors and Fred Fox at Bayside Restaurant in recognition of the work the Fox family has done for cancer research.
On Sept. 18, the first in-person Orillia Terry Fox Run in three years will take place.
The community raised more than $43,209 for the Terry Fox Foundation the second virtual run in 2021, surpassing the $1-per-Orillia-resident goal for the 13th year in a row. That brought the overall total raised locally over the years to $854,025.68.
Run organizer Alison Stoneman is looking forward to the community coming back together to participate this year.
“I think we did … a really good job of raising money during the pandemic, doing it virtually their own way, and that was so overwhelmingly awe inspiring, but we were missing something and that’s the community coming together,” she said.
Stoneman, a cancer survivor, said part of Terry’s legacy has been normalizing talking about cancer.
They just didn’t talk about cancer (before), and we lost my grandmother to cancer. I’m thankful that Terry came and made us talk about cancer,” she said. “When I … was diagnosed with cancer, by then it was OK for me to talk about cancer.
“I learned from Terry that the more we do, the better other people’s outcomes are.”
For more information about the Orillia Terry Fox Run, including how to donate and register, click here.
