On Sunday, Canadians across the country will participate in the annual Terry Fox Run, an event that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.
Darrell Fox had a front-row seat to the run that started it all.
Darrell was 17 back in 1980 when he accompanied his older brother on the original Marathon of Hope — and 45 years later, he is still in awe of what Terry accomplished.
“I don't know how he did it,” Darrell said, during a recent appearance on our Closer Look podcast. “I'll spend the rest of my life trying to answer that question of how.”
Back in July, Darrell completed a monumental journey of his own: he and a group of fellow cyclists pedalled from coast to coast (a 32-day journey that spanned more than 7,000 km) and raised another $1 million-plus for cancer research.
He said the most rewarding part was speaking to people along the way who were there when his brother ran through the same community.
“I'm a sponge for Terry Fox stories at the best of times,” Darrell said. “And this was next level — all the stories I was hearing of those that saw Terry run in 1980.”
On the podcast, Darrell also opened up about the anger he felt after his older brother was forced to end his marathon, then passed away.
“What happened left me questioning lots of things about life,” he said. “It just didn't seem fair what happened to Terry, so instead of embracing the Marathon of Hope I ran away from it for many, many years. So I've lost a lot of memories, but I still have incredible feelings of remembering being on the side of the road or in the van watching Terry run. But more than that, watching a nation watch my brother run. That’s a memory that’s instilled in my brain and will be there for forevermore.”
You can watch the full interview HERE.
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