450 - "Terry Fox On The Far Shore"

Terry Fox stands on an uncertain shore.  Knocked down but not beaten, he arrives in St. John's, Newfoundland in April of 1980.  He is a cancer survivor, but he has lost his right leg to osteosarcoma.  He has trained himself not just to walk but to run on a crude artificial leg.  Not everyone has come to believe that he can do what he wants to do.

The beach is rocky and polluted.  Even the more sure-footed tend to avoid walking right up to the oily, freezing water.  He dips his artificial leg wearing an Adidas track shoe into the Atlantic Ocean, then turns to face the marathon he will run today.  He wants to run across the entire Canadian nation, and again dip his leg in the far shore. 

One hundred and forty three days later, Terry Fox has run as far as he can, almost to the western border of Ontario in central Canada.  The cancer has returned.  Ultimately it will claim his life.  Terry reaches his far shore. 

Although Terry Fox cannot, we continue the fight in all our own little ways. 

What was Terry Fox thinking, about to take that first step?  I drew this pencil sketch in an effort to find out.  A few years ago, I stood on the same beach as Terry Fox, at the monument that marks the very beginning of his Marathon Of Hope.  Please click here to see JSVB Entry #209, one of my most popular posts, and find out more. 

Although Terry Fox made some beautiful and compelling speeches along his route, he likely had little to say to begin his journey.  He groaned out loud when he took his foot out of the water and saw the massive steep hill he had to climb just to get out of St. John's Harbour. 

Several months ago, Blogger statistics informed me that people were searching for the answer to "Why did Terry Fox dip his foot into the ocean?".  I thought that would be a worthy follow-up to my previous Terry Fox entry, and I had an elaborate graphic visual in mind.  Eventually, I decided a simple pencil sketch might be better, as several municipalities are planning to upgrade their Fox memorials, and they have some exemplary designs.   

I did write to the Terry Fox Foundation, just to make sure somebody knew why Terry chose to get his artificial foot wet.  Donna White from the Foundation replied:

"Terry’s goal was to dip his artificial leg in to the Atlantic Ocean to mark the beginning of his Marathon of Hope and to then again repeat this same thing at the Pacific Ocean when he returned home to British Columbia and to celebrate the end of his amazing journey. "


Today was the 31st annual Terry Fox Run for the cure for cancer.