Riverhead honours its volunteers

The Town of Riverhead used National Volunteer Week to honour some of its long time volunteers earlier this month.

VOCM Open Line host Paddy Daley, whose father hailed from Riverhead, served as guest speaker for the event.

Riverhead Mayor Sheila Lee said about 80 people attended the dinner, including about 20 who don’t actually live in the community, but who contribute to it.

Lee used her speech to contrast the volunteerism of years ago with the style of volunteerism today to show that people in rural areas have always extended a hand when needed. “In my community, there were no organizations like the Legion, or recreation committees, or council,” explained Lee, who grew up farther down the bay. About the only volunteer groups that existed were ones connected to the parish, she explained. “But then I thought about all the good deeds that people did for each other in those days to help each other out, even to the point of staying up in the nighttime when someone was dying to help a family out.”

Lee also used the occasion to read a chapter from her first book, which highlighted the contribution of one of Riverhead’s earlier citizens. It was about a midwife, who happened to be Daley’s grandmother, and was written by the woman’s daughter and granddaughter.

“You could hear a pin drop the whole time I was reading the story,” said Lee. “I had their attention right from the beginning. It was so appropriate.”

Daley asked for a copy of the story to take home to share with his sons. 

Leaders of local community groups were also invited to give a synopsis of their activities “to give a sense of all the great stuff that is happening through volunteers,” Lee added.

Placentia – St. Mary’s MHA Felix Collins presented certificates to some local volunteers in recognition of their efforts.

Riverhead fire truck being readied for action

The fire truck that went off the road and crashed while its operators were responding to a fire in the Gaskiers during a severe winter storm in March has been repaired and even repainted and is being readied to go back into service.

“It was a pretty scary experience,” Riverhead Mayor Sheila Lee said of the accident.

The fire broke out around dawn on March 16 during the height of a storm. The lone man in the house managed to escape. Volunteers with the Riverhead Volunteer Fire Department had trouble reaching the scene because the highway was covered in thick, wet snow.

Some people in the area were concerned that equipment from the Department of Transportation had not been out to clear the road that morning. But Lee said it was during the eye of the storm and it would have been pointless for maintenance crews to try clearing the road before the wind and snow subsided.

“We’re so blessed that it wasn’t a big tragedy,” Lee said of the crash involving the fire truck. “The weather was so bad and visibility was zero. If that truck had gone off in another place, like over a bank, people could have been killed.”
There were two firefighters aboard the truck when it went off the road. Some 14 volunteer firefighters answered the call. One of the them, who happened to have a plow on his pickup, tried to clear a path for the fire truck. “Talk about going beyond the call of duty,” Lee said. “I never saw such devotion as these firemen have.”

Lee reckoned the truck is about 15 years old but was well maintained and in very good shape before the accident. “It’s going to be as good as new,” she said. “There is going to be a $5,000 deductible. Thank God that we got it resolved to have that household fee to have a bit of fund there for things like this that come up.”

Lee wasn’t certain of the size of the repair bill. “I think it’s $20,000 or more,” she estimated. “With the (insurance) policy we have, the first $5,000 is a deductible.”

Goulds chiropractor switches focus from Kilbride to Ferryland

The proposed change in electoral boundaries has made Goulds chiropractor Dr. Jeff Marshall switch the focus of his election bid from Kilbride District to Ferryland.

Under the proposed changes, Kilbride would be eliminated with much of the district to fall under a new riding called Waterford Valley. Ferryland District, meanwhile, would stretch northwards, albeit slightly. It would run from St. Shotts, as it does currently, to the Ruby Line in the Goulds.

Marshall had previously won the Liberal nomination for Kilbride district. The Goulds makes up approximately 40 per cent of the population of the newly adjusted district of Ferryland. Petty Harbour – Maddox Cove makes up a further eight percent, meaning the north end of the district will be a key battleground among the candidates for the Liberal and New Democratic parties and the incumbent, Keith Hutchings of the Progressive Conservatives. Bay Bulls to Tors Cove comprises about 27 per cent of the district’s population, while Brigus South to Cappahayden has about 18 per cent of the vote and Portugal Cove South to St. Shotts, which includes Trepassey and Biscay Bay, has about seven per cent.

The figures may actually be skewed a little higher in the Bay Bulls to Tors Cove area. The population counts are based on the 2011 census. In the four years since then, Bay Bulls and Witless Bay has seen considerable residential growth.

Marshall said what now comprises Kilbride district will be split four ways, if the plan proposed by the Electoral Boundaries Commission is passed by the legislature. Kilbride proper would be rolled into the district of Waterford Valley, Brookfield Plains into St. John’s West, Southlands into Mount Pearl – Southlands, and the remaining part of the Goulds that wasn’t already part of Ferryland would be added to that district.

“I was surprised,” Marshall said of the proposal. “But to be honest, I think the changes really make sense with the Goulds being all together and there is a lot of historical connection between the Goulds and Petty Harbour and the Southern Shore. I was surprised, but you’ve just got to roll with it and run in the district that feels most like home.”

Marshall spent a lot of time the past two years campaigning, first for the Liberal nomination in Kilbride, and then for the seat itself. Kilbride is held by PC MHA John Dinn. Marshall said his work in Kilbride won’t be wasted. “Ultimately the goal is to elect as many Liberal MHAs as possible so we can have a better government after the next election under Dwight Ball. So other candidates will benefit from the work that I’ve done there. We really had a team effort…”

Asked to identify the most important issues in Ferryland district, Marshall said infrastructure is important in the Goulds, as are the same issues that are important across the province, including health care, education and employment. “Newfoundland just officially booked its 17th straight month of job losses,” Marshall noted, “and there’s a lot of economic uncertainty, so we need a solid plan going forward… As far as further up the Shore, I’m working right now to try to set up meetings with municipal leaders and community leaders in the area to make sure that I’m very up on the issues in that area. Through my involvement with the Irish Loop Chamber of Commerce I’ve gotten to know quite a few people and I think I’ve got a good idea of the issues, but I want to make sure I’m consulting people who are in the area and who are involved in those communities to make sure I have a solid handle on everything.”

Marshall said he is not intimidated by the notion Ferryland is one of perhaps three or four districts where the PCs might retain a seat. “I know Keith a little bit and I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” said Marshall. “I think he’s a great person. But I’m just focussing on putting myself out there to the people of Ferryland district and giving them a solid choice. I think the fact that it seems to be such a safe PC seat can be sometimes a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy and it might make it a little intimidating for someone to put the work in and put themselves out there as a Liberal candidate for that reason. I’m just going in there, concentrating on what the issues are for the people in the district and working hard to make sure everyone knows who I am and what I stand for and really get a reputation as a hard worker. It’s really just to give the people what they need and that is a solid choice so that when they go to cast their vote they’ll know there is a committed candidate who’s an alternative for their vote.”

Marshall said since announcing his intention to run for the Liberal nomination in Ferryland he has been pleasantly surprised by people who have reached out from different parts of the district offering to join his campaign.

“I think a lot of people are excited to have a candidate who has committed so early to the district and who is willing to put the work in,” he said. “I think I’ve proven in the last year with my work in Kilbride that I’m not afraid of hard work and that I’m willing to be visible and vocal on things when necessary. And I think people are just excited to have the option, an alternative, because the perception is down there that a lot of people didn’t expect to have a Liberal candidate until the very last minute and a lot of them thought it might be a name on a ballot. So I think there is a lot of excitement there knowing that it will be a race and a very well contested campaign. It should be great for the people of Ferryland, because they’ll actually get to discuss issues. I’m hoping that we can have a candidates’ debate during the election and things like that, something that may have been missing in the last couple of election cycles.”

Marshall said he would welcome a contested nomination for the Liberal nod, because it’s important to test your campaign organization. “It also gives you an opportunity to reach out to a lot of new people,” he said. “I found the contested nomination was very helpful for that reason in Kilbride district.

While his party got the PCs to agree to an amendment to hold an election this year as part of the deal to pass the legislation setting up the Boundary Commission, Marshall allowed the vote could be delayed into next year. The whole point of Premier Paul Davis introducing Bill 42 was to delay the election in the first place, he wagered. “So I wouldn’t be too surprised if they try to delay the election even further,” Marshall said, “but I think the people of the province are ready for an election and that public pressure will be enough to make sure that they call it in the fall of 2015.”

Marshall is married to Christa Mallay, who along with being his wife is also a fellow chiropractor and a partner in their business at Bidgood’s Plaza. The couple have a 13 month old son, John. Along with being a Liberal candidate, Marshall is also a member of the Goulds Lions Club and a former treasurer of the provincial Liberal Party. He spent the past year as president of the Irish Loop Chamber of Commerce.

'None the worse for it'

John Lahey was 29 when he met Rita Hayes. The 25 year old woman from Brigus South was working as a maid for a merchant family in Cape Broyle, the same family Lahey worked for as a fishermen, truck driver and jack of all trades. On Tuesday, the couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

“Mrs. Kate was trying to match us up for a while,” Rita recalls of the woman she worked for at the time. “She’d go, ‘You get him now, he’s a fine man.’”

Once they became acquainted, John would walk the four miles to Brigus South to court Rita.

This past Sunday, couple hosted a crowd of relatives and friends at Ruby Manor, where they moved last year after spending all their married lives in Cape Broyle. The party also celebrated each of their respective birthdays. John turned 99 on April 23 while Rita marked her 95th birth two days earlier.

Rita laughs when asked the secret to staying together for 70 years. “We always got along,” she says. “If there was anything to be said, we said it to one another and had it over with. That was it. I don’t know if they (the children) ever heard us arguing.”

“We never did any fighting,” agreed John, who one year shy of a century still has a sharp mind and a razor like sense of humour.

But while their marriage was a solid partnership, life wasn’t always easy for the pair.

“I had like to be a widow woman the first year we were married,” Rita says.

John was manning a line from a cod trap that was bolted into a cliff on shore when a wave swept him off the rock he was on and started spinning him among the boulders in the water. “I had hip rubbers on me and a rubber apron,” John remembers. “They got filled up with water.”

John kept his wits and was strong enough to swim and stop himself from being dragged down or smashed on the rocks. When the sea calmed down he swam out to a dory where the lone fellow fishing it helped him cling on until another boat came over with enough men to haul him aboard.

Rita remembers her new husband coming home soaking wet.

Both John and Rita came from large families and were aware of the rigours of working in rural Newfoundland in the 1940s and ‘50s. As children, they had been used to hard times. The hard times continued after they married in 1945.

“We grew our own vegetables all of the time,” said Rita. “There were two little stores in Cape Broyle, and that was our grocery shopping. That was as far as we got.”

The stores were owned by Johnny O’Brien, known as ‘Old Mr. Johnny,’ and Jim O’Brien. Both had fishermen working for them trapping cod and making fish. John worked for 13 years with Ron Ryan, Jim’s son, fishing in the summer and hauling wood in the winter behind a 1,300 pound horse.

“He’d go Monday morning and come back Saturday,” Rita says of her husband’s wood hauling days.

John still bears the effects of so much hard work. He is tall and straight, and though his fingers are buckled with arthritis, his hands remain as big as baseball gloves and his body still retains a muscular looking physique. He was so big and strong looking that when he was younger some people would ask if he was a policeman, Rita says.

“You worked hard,” John allowed. “And you didn’t get much for it.”

John also drove a truck for the O’Brien’s, picking up split and dried cod from as far away as Portugal Cove South. He can still picture driving into the community while it was still dark, the lights twinkling in the windows of the houses. All the cod was laid out on flakes and the rocks along the beach.

“There was fish straight around everywhere then,” said John, “drying on flakes all along the road.”

Fishing would start with the laying of salmon nets in April, then came the cod trap fishery and hand lining.

John would get up at 3 a.m. on the mornings he set cod traps. Later in the morning he would haul them. “If there was any fish you would stay at it all day,” he says. “And then in the night you’d be splitting fish.”

Rita can remember him coming home for lunch. He would use part of the short break to take a nap sitting up in the chair.

“You were on your feet all the time,” Rita says. “And women worked just as hard. They had the house and the children and everything to look after, in the gardens and everything else.”

A lot changed in 1949 when Newfoundland joined Canada. Among the changes was the baby bonus. By then the Laheys had the first three of their five children.

“We were looking forward to the big cheque we were going to get,” says Rita, “six dollars a month. That was what it was. But that was good coming in at that time. Although it was small, it was a help.”

Confederation also meant pensions for old people. Shortly afterwards the road up the shore was paved too. Then came electricity and television.

Trips to St. John’s were still rare. “Nobody would go, they had nothing to spend,” John jokes.

“That is the truth,” says Rita.

But they would make a trip in the fall of the year, if there was anything left to spend. Like most places on the island, fishermen in Cape Broyle had an account with one of the local merchants. During the fall, winter and spring, they lived on the account, charging their food and supplies with the merchant deducting the amounts from the fish they caught in the summer. Some years there was very little ‘pay’ left over by fall. Occasionally there was none at all.

“They took every cent you had now mind you, they didn’t want to give you a cent out of the store,” Rita recalls. “You’d beg for it. If you had a hundred dollars coming to you in the fall, you were a lucky person.”

And that’s when you would go to St. John’s to buy winter groceries.

“There was no unemployment then,” Rita adds.

Anyone who couldn’t get work or didn’t have money could ask for welfare, but that wasn’t much, nor guaranteed. Some people, such as Lahey, might make a bit of extra money in the winter by clearing the road with a horse and plow on those occasions when it was covered in snow and someone needed to get to the hospital in St. John’s.  

But life still had a magic to it. Rita remembers as a child that each community had its own little schoolhouse and nearly everyone had big families of 11 or 12 children. John came from a family of 11 brothers and sisters. They kept a horse for work and a cow for milk. Like many others, both John’s and Rita’s families kept hens and sheep.

“That was your Christmas Day dinner – mutton,” says Rita. “We’d be some delighted when we’d come home Christmas Eve night. We’d all be fasting then, see, and we’d walk up to Cape Broyle for Midnight Mass – that was four miles from where I lived – and we’d get home at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. Mother would have mutton cooked and we’d be some delighted to get the smell of mutton. Then we’d have a feed and go to bed.”

March was known as ‘the hungry month of March,’ Rita explains, because that’s the time of year when groceries would be running out and the boats carrying supplies to the outports would sometimes get trapped in the ice. When you were hungry there was no point in asking for food, you just accepted that you had to do without it, she says.

“We see the good times and we see the bad times,” Rita allows. “We had bad times when we were growing up, but we were all happy, all hands were happy and united.”

For entertainment, there were card games, and the occasional dance. For the dances, people would bring along something to contribute to the cooking pot for a feed of colcannon. In summer time, fishermen from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia would visit the community, often looking to buy homemade spruce beer as their ships loaded up with bait.

Religion played a major role in people’s lives and Christmas and Easter were special occasions.

“Holy Week was a big week in Cape Broyle,” Rita says. People went to Church in the morning and again at night. That included school children, who would attend Mass before walking to school.

Asked what he gave up for Lent, John cracks, “I had nothing to give up.”

Rita says what they did give up was butter, meat and maybe milk for their tea.

There was no sugar. People sweetened their tea with molasses.

Dances ended at midnight, says Rita. “And you had to be in too. After that they’d be out looking for you.”

Things weren’t quite as tough by the time the pair married in 1945. The war was over and the Americans had pumped up the Newfoundland economy a bit thanks to the bases they operated. John got work for a while at the base in Pleasantville. But it still wasn’t what you’d call easy. When the Lahey’s first child, Michael, was born, John gave up smoking the pipe and chewing tobacco because he could no longer afford such luxuries. Michael was followed by Mona, Adrian, Anita and Margie. John never did go back to smoking.

But when he was 58, John had to stop splitting fish and cut back on a lot of his work. He found himself out of breath easily and weak.

“He couldn’t walk up the lane,” Rita says.

A doctor in St. John’s told him the blood flow through the main valve of his heart had narrowed to the size of a pinhole. John was put on medication. He kept active and still worked, though he had to avoid lifting heavy things. By then, the two oldest children were raised and ready for work themselves. When John was 73, his health got bad again and he underwent open heart surgery.

Looking back on it all, the couple are satisfied they did the best they could. “They all got reared up and they were never hungry,” Rita says of their children. “We saw to that. We did without ourselves to give to them… We had the hard times, but we had the good times too… We’re none the worse for it. If you don’t strain yourself, work don’t hurt you.”

Hailey's Shave fundraiser has special meaning for Goulds family this year

Saturday marked the fourth year in a row for Hailey’s Shave, a fundraiser for Camp Delight and the Candlelighters organization and according to organizer and mom Sonija Walsh, it was the most meaningful one yet for her family.

That’s because the dad in the family, Paul Walsh, faced his own battle with cancer this past year. Paul finished radiation and chemotherapy treatments two weeks ago and is looking hale and hearty. In fact, he stood in for daughter Hailey, who opted not to have her locks shorn this year as she is participating on the cheerleading squad with her school, St. Kevin’s Junior High in the Goulds, and they have a regional competition coming up.

“Shortly after Hailey shaved last year – she did it in May and Paul found out in June he had cancer, only a couple of weeks after,” Sonjia said.

But Paul did so well with his treatments, he even managed to gain weight at the end, though he was really sick from the chemo treatments at first.

The couple, who are originally from Cape Broyle but now live in the Goulds, got a front row seat to the effects of cancer on a family in a way they had not expected. It gave Sonjia an even deeper appreciation of the need for fundraising efforts such as Hailey’s Shave.

The impact is financial as well as emotional, Walsh said. “It’s a major burden,” she noted. “I know as a wife, with my husband being sick, how stressful it is. While the person who is sick is focused on getting better, you’ve got to deal with the household and the finances and keeping the family together.”

Walsh said she really feels for families who have a child with cancer. In many cases, she said, one or both of the parents have to give up their jobs to accompany the child on visits and stays at the hospital. “You can’t keep a job like that, when you’re going back and forth (to the hospital) all the time just for appointments alone,” Walsh said.

The money raised for Camp Delight and the Candlelighters, Walsh said, enables families to send their child to summer camp with his or her peers, who also have cancer, and have fun in a safe environment so that the parents don’t have to worry or go through expenses they can’t afford.

Camp Delight is located off the Salmonier Line. It lasts eight days and is open to children from seven to 17 whop have cancer, as well as their siblings and bereaved siblings. Like most summer camps, it provides the children with an opportunity to experience personal growth. The camp is organized by the Candlelighters Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (ww.candlelightersnl.ca).

This year’s Hailey’s Shave was the biggest yet in terms of activities. The venue was the gymnasium of Goulds Elementary, which was lined with booths including Pixie Mommas and Glitter Tattoos. There was a guest visit from Buddy the Puffin and a donation of a stick from the Ice Caps for a ticket draw. A canteen was also in operation to provide soup and snacks.

“We tried to cover it all,” said Walsh. “Our goal is to get more awareness… And we’re really looking to expand next year – the bigger the better.”
Walsh said she and fellow shavers Kathy Ricketts and Melissa Randell would like to shave many more heads if they get the chance.

Six children participated in this year’s shave, raising some $3,172. The number is a little lower than usual, because Paul, who works offshore, unavailable to raise money from his fellow workers. But the amount is on top of the approximately $25,000 the annual Hailey’s Shave events have raised for Camp Delight.

The total amount raised may have been down slightly, but the effort and heart that went into it wasn’t.

“This year meant more to me than all the rest of them,” Walsh said.

Chamber of Commerce elects new directors

The Irish Loop Chamber of Commerce marked another busy year during its annual general meeting and election of officers, held at the Sapphire Lounge in Bay Bulls last week.

Some 28 people attended the event, which is higher than past years.

“I've heard it said that people tend to overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can do in a year. I think we're proof of that this year,” said outgoing president Dr. Jeff Marshall, who highlighted some of the chamber’s achievements in 2014-2015.

“We totally rebranded the Chamber with a new logo and identification,” said Marshall. “We revamped the Chamber Membership Kit, launched a membership drive, attended numerous events and announcements, attended the symposiums and provided input to The Harris Centre Report on the Irish Loop, contributed to the Laurentic Conference committee with the Cities of Donegal and Derry, Ireland, developed a new Chamber website and social media program, and imagined and produced LoopEx'14, the first ever Business-to-Business Trade Show on the Irish Loop and the first at Southern Shore Arena.”

Though it was in its infancy, Marshall said the LoopEx was a huge success. 

“After speaking with those who had booths, we learned that people made great sales contacts and most will be back this year,” he added. “Not only does LoopEx showcase business to the local community, it also raised the profile of business in the loop to those outside our region.”

This year’s LoopEx is slated for June 20 at the Arena in Mobile. Marshall said the event is being held a little later than the one last year so that it doesn’t have to compete for attention with similar shows scheduled in the St. John’s area around the same time. “We’re pretty excited about it,” Marshall said. “I think that’s going to be even bigger this year and continue to grow.”

The chamber also created and staged the Seagull Awards, the first ever business and bocial achievement awards program on the Irish Loop, Marshall noted, and held another successful Fall Fair.  

Marshall said the chamber also put an emphasis on developing contacts and sharing resources with other like-minded organizations in the region such as the Southern Avalon Development Association (SADA), based in Trepassey, and the East Coast Trail Association (ECTA). SADA has been contracted to provide some of the Chamber’s bookkeeping and administrative services.

“The chamber has got a pretty broad reach and I want to make sure we’re pooling our talents when we can,” Marshall said.

ECTA actually has a representative on the Chamber’s board of directors this year as a result of the election of officers. Mona Rossiter of Calvert will represent ECTA on the chamber’s board and the chamber on ECTA’s board. Other directors on the Chamber’s board for the coming year include Mike Rose of Rose Synergies based in Witless Bay, Carol Ann Devereaux of the Trepassey Motel in Trepassey, Linda Cook and Denise Leonard of In ‘da Loop Restaurant & Lounge in Fermeuse, and Marshall, who operates Back Home Chiropractic in the Goulds. The group will meet soon to establish the executive positions including president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary.

One exciting new development on the horizon, Marshall said, is the development of a Loop App for mobile phones. It will replace the Chamber’s traditional printed business directory. “This is going to the first in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Marshall. “Based on your location it will tell you what’s closest to you, you’ll be able to search any kind of service, it will tell you what services are coming up as you’re moving along the Southern Shore highway. It’s pretty exciting technology really.”

The young man behind the icon

Students at St. Kevin’s High were offered an intimate and candid look inside the family life of a Canadian icon this month and thanked by his brother for keeping Terry Fox’s dream alive.

Fred Fox has picked up the torch of maintaining Terry’s memory and dream to raise money for cancer research from his late mom Betty, who dies three years ago.

It was clear from Fox’s talk to a hushed gymnasium full of students that all of the Fox family have been swept up in the mission that Terry started 35 years ago when he began his Marathon of Hope fundraising run across Canada from St. John’s harbour. Fox’s younger brother Darrell, who accompanied Terry during most of his run, still participates in Terry Fox events. Sister Judith looks after all of the international Terry Fox Runs, which are now held in over 30 countries. Cuba hosts the second largest number of Terry Fox Runs, with over two million people participating. Some 20,000 people participated in the Abu Dhabi Terry Fox Run.

“Our parents taught us it was important to finish what we start,” said Fox, who was a year older and a grade ahead in school when he and Terry grew up together in Manitoba and later British Columbia.

“We did everything together,” said Fox, who described his brother as “just an average kid,” but one with a special character trait when it came to determination.

“Our parents thought, and taught us, that it was important to work hard, to help out around the house, to do our chores,” said Fox.

The children also had to earn everything they got, he added. “They weren’t just going to go out and buy us our first set of golf clubs, or our first pair of blue jeans, or even our first 10 speed bike. We had to go and do that ourselves.”

The Fox brothers spent their summer holidays in July and August, from Monday to Friday, picking blueberries in the fields outside Port Coquitlam. “That taught Terry that work habit, that work ethic that he so needed when he was running across Canada and for everything else that he wanted to do,” said Fred.

Noting the pennants and banners hanging in the gymnasium, Fox said sports were a big part of Terry’s life. “Terry loved to played sports,” said Fox. “We did everything – baseball, hockey, soccer – whatever we could get our hands on, we played. We were always playing hard and competing. That’s what Terry loved to do.”

Fox recalled Terry in Grade 8 when he tried out for the school’s basketball team. “This is where he really began to meet the challenges he would face through high school,” said Fred. “Without exaggeration, Terry was one of the smallest Grade 8 boys in all of the school. But he wanted to play basketball. Terry practiced with the team for two weeks. The coach came to Terry and pulled him aside away from the rest of the team and said, ‘You know what, Terry? You’re probably going to sit on the bench and not play very much this year. You’re not very tall, your skill level is not quite where we need it to be, maybe the wrestling team or the cross country team may be more to your liking?’ But Terry took that as a challenge and every day after that you’d find Terry in the gymnasium practicing, before school, lunch time, after school, on the weekend, improving his skills. He never quit. He sat on the bench most of that season, played a few minutes here and there. But by the time he got to Grade 10, Terry was the starting guard and the captain of the team.”

Terry graduated from high school in 1976. His hope was to attend Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and play on the college basketball team. SFU was the first university in Canada to offer basketball scholarships to the best players they could recruit across the country. The coaching staff had not heard of Terry Fox.

But Terry kept telling his friends he was going to play for SFU, though some laughed at him. When university opened, 18 year-old Terry attended the tryouts as a ‘walk on’ athlete. His goal was to make the team, get a degree and teach high school physical education.

“The coaches would tell our parents later that ‘We couldn’t cut Terry. He made every one of those kids that we had scouted and recruited from all over Canada better athletes,’” said Fred. “He was a great teammate.’”

One of the college athletes Terry played with was future Olympian and Raptors coach Jay Triano.

Fox was not only playing college basketball, but also high level rugby and soccer. Into his second year of university he started to develop a sore knee. “He ignored it,” said Fox. “He hated to go to the doctors. Unfortunately it’s bit of a Fox trait. We don’t like to go see the doctor and Terry should have.”

The pain lasted for a couple of months. Then one morning in March when he woke up to get ready for class he could barely make to the kitchen.

Terry’s dad took him to the hospital where they ran tests. Fred was at work when his mother called. “She said, ‘Fred, you’ve got to join us at the hospital. We’ve just received some bad news.’”

Terry, 18, was told he had bone cancer and that his leg would be removed in four days’ time.

“He was devastated,” said Fred. “Terry thought heds never be able to play sports again, he thought he’d never be able to continue his university studies.”

The day before the operation, Fred spent the whole day at work worrying over what he would say to his brother when he visited the hospital that evening.

“All I could think of saying was, ‘Terry, why you? Why do you have to have cancer? All your dreams are coming true, you’re going to university, getting a degree, playing basketball at the highest level. Why you?’ And Terry said, ‘Why not me, Fred? It’s just another challenge. I’ve been told all my life that I’m not big enough and not strong and that I’m not smart enough. This is just another challenge that I have to overcome,’” Fred recalled. “And I knew then that Terry was going to be perfectly fine. He had decided in those four days since being told he had cancer that he wasn’t going to sit around feeling sorry for himself, he was going to turn it into something positive.”

Ten days after the operation, Terry was fitted with an artificial leg and surprised doctors by trying to walk so quickly. Over the next 18 months Terry witnessed children, adults and old people suffering from cancer and facing similar challenges. From that, he decided he wanted to make a difference.

“Terry began getting into shape,” said Fred. “He started to run, started to lift weights, play wheelchair basketball.”

That’s where he met and became close friends with Rick Hansen, who later became famous as the Man in Motion for his marathon performances in a wheelchair.

Terry’s family thought he was training for the Vancouver Marathon. But shortly after running a 17 mile race, as the only amputee, on Labour Day weekend 1980, in which he came last, the 21 year old told his family that he was going to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research, “so no one else would have to suffer the consequences of cancer.”

Fred said their Mom got very upset. She worried about how hard it would be on him. She suggested he limit his run to British Columbia.

“Terry said, ‘Mom, it’s not only people in B.C. who get cancer. People right across Canada do. I have to start in St. John’s, Newfoundland.’ And that’s what Terry did,” Fred said.

A measure of his determination was that Terry ran over 5,000 kms in training runs before even leaving for St. John’s. “Terry knew he had to prepare his body for all those miles he was going to run,” Fred said.

But as hard as he had trained, Fred said, Terry had not fully expected to meet the kind of weather that he did, or the hills that greeted him outside St. John’s. Terry chronicled it all in a personal journal that he added to every day. In it, he confessed things that he wouldn’t admit to his best friend Doug Alward, who accompanied him on the trip, such as feeling so dizzy during some of the runs that he was scared that he wouldn’t make it. On days like that, Terry would squat down on the pavement and do push-ups to prove to himself that he was capable of carrying on.

It was stressful, not just for Terry, but also for Alward, who drove slowly along behind Terry as he ran each mile.

“You can imagine,” said Fred. “They were out on the highway in this small little camperized van, they were 21 years old and before that time they had both been living at home and going to university. Our mom cooked their meals and washed their clothes and cleaned up after them. Well, now they’re living in this camperized van and it’s Doug’s job, not only to drive the van, but to cook the meals, keep the van clean, do whatever Terry wanted to meet his needs. Terry was running close to a marathon a day and you can imagine that after a while they weren’t getting along very well. They argued over whose turn it was to dump the port-a-potty and all that kind of stuff. They weren’t getting along to the point that sometimes they were actually having fistfights with each other.”

To relive the stress, Terry’s younger brother Darrell managed to graduate high school a few months early and join the Marathon of Hope in Saint John, New Brunswick. Now there were three young men sharing the van in the nighttime.

Terry’s goal was to raise $1 million for cancer research. At Port aux Basques, he was greeted by a crowd who had raised $10,000, about $1 for every person in the region. It inspired Terry to expand his goal to collecting the equivalent of $1 for every Canadian. That’s the goal of the Terry Fox Foundation again this year.

From Port aux Basques, Fox took the ferry across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and resumed his run in Cape Breton. He would get up at 4 every morning after sleeping in the cramped camper and get on the road by 5 a.m., running the equivalent of a 26 mile marathon every day on one leg and a prosthetic strapped to the stump of his other thigh.

“He set little goals for himself,” said Fred. “He didn’t get up with the intention of running a marathon every day. But he would go out on the highway and he would find a telephone pole or a tall tree or a curve in the highway and he would set little goals. He’d reach that tree that was in the distance and then find another object in the distance to set himself another goal. And by the end of the day he would have run, 20 or 26 or 30 miles.”

Terry continued his course through the Maritimes, across Quebec and into Ontario. He was running in Northern Ontario on September 1 when the cough that he had been developing over several weeks became too much. He had left St. John’s in April, when the wind and rain still had the lash of winter.  He had run through the cold, the wet and the fog of the Atlantic coast and then the heat, humidity and mosquitoes of spring and summer in Central Canada. He had run and stumped some 5,400 kilometres over 143 days with that now famous gait of his when a doctor odered him to stop. The cancer that had taken his leg had spread into his lungs.

Fred was travelling in a car with his parents and sister on the TransCanada Highway when their father switched on the radio and a news report said Terry was in hospital in Thunder Bay. “No other information,” said Fred. “Back then of course we didn’t have cel phones.”

When they got home, the phone was ringing and it was Terry on the line calling to let them know what had happened. But even then he wasn’t ready to quit. He was hoping to finish the run after taking more cancer treatment. “Terry truly felt that next spring, the spring of 1981, that he would get back out there in Thunder Bay and continue his Marathon of Hope,” Fred said. “But by Christmas we knew that Terry wasn’t getting any healthier.”

Terry realized it too, Fred said. When someone suggested organizing an annual fundraiser for cancer research called the Terry Fox Run, Terry liked the idea. But he didn’t live to see it. He died in late June 1981. The very first Terry Fox Runs were held that September.

“Terry had said, long before he was forced to stop the Marathon of Hope, that ‘Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue, it’s got to keep going without me,” Fred said. “And that’s what you folks do here every year when you have your Terry Fox Run in September. I can’t tell you enough the fundraising that you do, the monies that you raise for cancer research have made a difference.”

By the time the runs are completed this fall, on the 35th anniversary of Terry’s original Marathon of Hope, some $700 million is likely to have been raised, Fred reckoned.

“That money has made a difference in so many people’s lives,” he added. “We are in contact with many people every other day about how that has impacted their lives or somebody they know.”