White Rocksa国际传媒檚 Bill Vigars is a man with hundreds of personal stories about one of Canadasa国际传媒檚 greatest heroes sa国际传媒� Terry Fox.
And he loves sharing them.
sa国际传媒淗e changed my life, and I will do everything to keep his legacy alive.sa国际传媒�
Vigars, who was Foxsa国际传媒檚 publicist, was at SFU Surrey Friday (Sept. 23), sharing stories of the time he spent with Terry more than four decades ago, during the Marathon of Hope.
sa国际传媒淭he one thing that people donsa国际传媒檛 realize is how nice he was,sa国际传媒� Vigars told his audience. sa国际传媒淗e was funny, he was relaxed, he loved kids. He was driven by what happened to him in the hospital.sa国际传媒�
Fox would often say, sa国际传媒淚 can quit the run any time I want, but the kids in the hospital cansa国际传媒檛,sa国际传媒� he recounted.
Vigars, who has never worked for the Terry Fox Foundation, was 33 when he joined the Marathon of Hope. He was responsible for getting the word out about Fox and his historic run. He was working with the Canadian Cancer Society at the time.
The first time he met Fox was on June 9, 1980. He was sent down to Edmundston, New Brunswick, to meet him on his run. Vigars saw how small towns were sa国际传媒渢ransfixedsa国际传媒� with Fox when he ran through. He thought to himself, sa国际传媒渋f this guy gets into a populated area, hesa国际传媒檒l explode.sa国际传媒�
There was really no schedule for the run, although Fox had to be in Ottawa for July 1 and July 11 in Toronto.
Vigars left Edmundston, and for the next three weeks he drove to as many small towns between Toronto and Ottawa, asking them to organize an event for Fox. They all said the same thing, if Fox made it this far, they would organize an event, said Vigars. Each one of these small towns has a monument for Fox.
He set up several events for Fox for when he would run through Toronto sa国际传媒� an appearance at a Blue Jays Game and meeting Bobby Orr.
When Vigars asked Fox how he did it, the young man responded that he took it one telephone pole at a time.
sa国际传媒淗e would run from one pole to another, then so on. He said he could not run 42 kilometres, but could run with the mindset of running from pole to pole.sa国际传媒�
Shortly after the cancer returned, invading Foxsa国际传媒檚 lungs and forcing him to abandon his cross-Canada run on Sept. 1, 1980, outside Thunder Bay, Ont. Soon after, Vigars spoke with the CBC.
sa国际传媒淭his is not the end of the run,sa国际传媒� he said at the time. sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 only the beginning.sa国际传媒�
sa国际传媒淎nd 42 years later,sa国际传媒� he said Friday, sa国际传媒渨e are still here.sa国际传媒�
Over $ 850 million has been raised in support of cancer research.
anna.burns@surreynowleader.com
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