THUNDER BAY – Forty years ago this week, Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope came to an end, just east of Thunder Bay.
Bryan Wyatt remembers it like it was yesterday.
Little did he know on Sept. 2, 1980, it would be the biggest story he’d cover in a television and radio broadcasting career that’s spanned more than four decades.
Wyatt, currently the news director at CKPR Radio, said he recalls the excitement was starting to build as the one-legged Fox, dubbed by many as the greatest Canadian, and his run across Canada in support of cancer research got closer and closer to Thunder Bay.
“The interest really picked up when he moved into Ontario. There was no question about it, and obviously it grew locally as he hit the North Shore and was getting closer to Thunder Bay,” Wyatt said on Tuesday morning, the 40th anniversary of Fox’s last leg of his Marathon of Hope.
“I think the excitement level was fairly high.”
On Sept. 1, 1980, an intense cough and chest pain forced Fox, then 22, off the road, though he hoped to continue his journey westward after seeking medical treatment.
Wyatt said the following day, local media knew something was wrong when they received word about a hastily called news conference on Munro Street, near the former Port Arthur General Hospital.
“We had set up our cameras down in the basement in Amethyst House, getting ready for this interview in their meeting room. Probably a few minutes before it was going to happen we were told they can’t get his stretcher inside and we bolted outside,” Wyatt side.
“We knew there was something really big.”
Fox was wheeled to the scrum, surrounded by journalists both local and national.
“There was an ambulance in behind. His mother and father were with him. Terry basically just addressed how things had developed, that the cancer had returned and spread to his lungs and he needed to go home for more treatment,” Wyatt said.
“He was determined to come back and finish his run if he could, which of course he wasn’t able to do.”
Fox died nearly 10 months later on June 28, 1981, a month before his 23rd birthday.
His legacy, however, has grown exponentially in the 39 years since his death.
Annually, Terry Fox runs are held around the world and it’s estimated nearly a billion dollars have been raised in his name in the battle against cancer ever since.
Don Morrison, who has helped organize runs locally, said it’s hugely significant to see Fox’s work continue long after his run came to a premature end.
“When you think of the 40 years and how much money has been raised, more than $800 million in the 40 years they’ve been run. If you think about the amount of research and scientific work that’s been done in that 40-year period and the number of people that have benefited from what he started,” Morrison said.
He pointed to a local youngster who was diagnosed with the same type of cancer that cost Fox one of his legs.
Four or five years ago that youngster was able to participate in a local Terry Fox run.
“Improvements in cancer care and treatment allowed him to still have his leg, whereas 40 years ago Terry lost his leg.”
This year’s Terry Fox run will be held virtually on Sept. 20.
