Perseverance is hard to define and even more difficult to measure.
Over the last week, more than a thousand people across the Westlock area have committed to showing their own perseverance by taking part in local Terry Fox Runs to raise money and awareness for cancer research.
For each participant that chose to walk, run or bike at an event last week, or over the coming days, that persistence has taken on a life of its own.
If there’s one thing that Fox’s story has taught us, it’s the transformative effect that our efforts can have on ourselves and those around us.
On April 12, 1980, when he departed St. John, Newfoundland, Fox was hard-pressed to find support on his quest for change and hope.
Even in his condition, battered by chemotherapy, rain, wind, and the loss of his leg, the change Fox saw in others as he ran kept him going.
First his support was measured in the thousands, then millions of dollars — a clear message that the influence of his perseverance and actions were not just changing his own story, but the hearts and minds of people around him.
Frequently, blood could be seen on his shorts, and as cysts and malignancies formed, he told reporters only that others had suffered worse and complained less.
By the time his cancer spread to his lungs, he had travelled over 5,373 kilometres, from Canada’s eastern coast to the town of Thunder Bay.
His persistence created a wave of hope that would circle our nation, though he could not. It continues to do so to this day, transforming the lives of anyone who hears his story.
Fox originally pledged to raise a dollar for every Canadian — more than $20 million at the time of his original run. By today’s count more than $700 million has been raised in his name.
One thing is certain: each and every person who laces up this September to raise awareness and money for cancer research is taking part in their own personal transformation, a continuation of Fox’s legacy that is still going strong after 36 years.
Whether in dollars or kilometres, we can try to measure the breadth of our success, but Fox himself would probably be the first to tell us that the only way to truly gauge our perseverance is one step at a time.
