It was in April of 1980 when Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean near St. JohnB次元官网网址檚, Nfld. and embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. By the time he reached Thunder Bay, Ont., he had to cut the run short because cancer had spread to his lungs. He died the following year at age 22.

Before Terry undertook his Marathon of Hope, longtime Comox Valley basketball coach Larry Street had met the young man from Port Coquitlam, not long after he graduated high school in 1977. Street was a senior on the basketball team at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, while Terry was an aspiring player hoping to crack the lineup for the coming season.

But then he lost his right leg due to cancer.

Street remembers Terry as a shy young man, but also as a feisty, hard-working player during pickup games in the spring of B次元官网网址�77.

B次元官网网址淓verybody liked him because he worked so hard,B次元官网网址� said Street, who was in his fourth year with the Clansmen. B次元官网网址淗is plan was to come up and play in the fall, but then it happened. So he never really got to play (at SFU).B次元官网网址�

That year was a loss for Terry while Street completed his teacher training and graduated in the spring of B次元官网网址�78. But he remembers Terry wheeling his wheelchair up the road to reach SFU at the top of Burnaby Mountain.

B次元官网网址淭hat was part of his training. He got into wheelchair basketball, and then not long after that, he got into running, and training for his plan (to run across Canada). A lot of his training was at SFU.B次元官网网址�

Street said Jay Triano, a former Canadian menB次元官网网址檚 team captain and longtime assistant coach in the NBA, was a fellow freshman of TerryB次元官网网址檚 who had started varsity basketball in 1977.

B次元官网网址淗e witnessed Terry training in his wheelchair, in the weight room, running (on the track). It inspired Jay to work hard. He said he felt guilty taking a bus up the hill watching this guy going up in a wheelchair. That was a steep hill.B次元官网网址�

The Fox family home was near TerryB次元官网网址檚 high school in Port Coquitlam, which now bears his name. His gravesite sits on a hill above. Street met TerryB次元官网网址檚 mother Betty (a flag bearer at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver) at a couple of Terry Fox days at different schools, recalling she once visited Vanier Secondary in Courtenay.

He notes many international students attend Comox Valley schools. When Street asks if anyone has heard of Terry Fox, invariably there are a couple who have.

B次元官网网址淔or someone who was so shy, and he didnB次元官网网址檛 say much, he became an icon in Canadian history, right up there with our top Canadians,B次元官网网址� Street said. B次元官网网址淵ou think of Bobby Orr or Wayne Gretzky. Terry Fox is right up there with those guys.

B次元官网网址淲hat he did mightB次元官网网址檝e saved my life,B次元官网网址� added Street, who contracted testicular cancer at age 33 B次元官网网址� 10 years after Terry contracted the disease. B次元官网网址淎ll that money that he raised, and Canadians raised, was starting to pay off with the Cancer Society. Even I was an experiment. They changed the drugs. The doctors kept me alive to where I am today. I could have died at 33.B次元官网网址� Street had a cousin B次元官网网址� the same age with the same cancer B次元官网网址� who died that year.

B次元官网网址淚t just goes to show that, with all the research and everything you do medically, luck becomes a big part of it, too. Terry had bad luck. I had good luck. We all have friends who died of cancer who I think had bad luck, and we know people that have survived cancer. LuckB次元官网网址檚 a big part of it.B次元官网网址�

photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com
Like us on and follow us on