Terry Fox

There are several characteristics that a person needs to have to make them a hero. I think a person's a hero is they are honest, hard working, giving, and caring about other people. Those traits make Terry Fox a hero to me. He was goal-oriented throughout his life. Like he said, “Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me.”

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Although he was raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. While in school, he was very involved in sports, like diving and swimming. The teachers encouraged him to stay with water sports, but he was honest and said, “I know that you can do the impossible.” They encouraged him, but they never really believed he could do anything he was not good at. So he went on to pursue another dream; to be a physical education teacher. As soon as he was 18 years old, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and had to have his right leg amputated 6 inches above the knee in 1977.

A little after the surgery, he decided to run across Canada to show that he cared about people who had cancer. In doing so he began to raise money for cancer research. Terry Fox started a run called the Marathon of Hope. To prepare he ran over 5,000 km for 18 months. When it was time to start, which was April 12, 1980, he began with little fanfare. He ran 26 miles everyday. He also showed that he was hard working and would never give up.

In one of Terry's runs, he had to quit after 143 days and in those days he ran 3,339 miles. It turns out that the cancer had spread to his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22. The whole nation was stunned and saddened when he passed away. $400 million was raised worldwide for cancer research in his name. I believe that if he was still live and raised that much; he would give it all to cancer research.

Those traits I mentioned earlier describe Terry Fox in many ways. He had me amazed when he performed a task sush as running to save other people from what had to happen to him. He always worked hard on everything he did. That is why Terry Fox is a hero to me.