Terry Fox, Steve Fonyo, Rick Hansen and how 2010 Olympics affected them

While Terry Fox was running across Canada to raise cancer awareness and research support he said, “Even if I don’t finish, we need others to keep going.”

Steve Fonyo, a teen was inspired by Terry Fox and wanted to complete Terry Fox’s vision of a run across Canada to raise money for cancer. He also was an amputee due to cancer. He started five years after Terry at age 18 and he did it in 1985, raising $14 million for Cancer and cancer research. Today Steve Fonyo was stripped of the Order of Canada for his conduct: his charges of driving under the influence, prison time in rehab for cocaine addiction and other ‘non-heroic’ achievements. We are more like a family than a country, hypocrites, and loving the one son while hating the other.

What they omit is that in 1986 Steve Fonyo went on to run Great Britain from the North tip to the South as another marathon to raise money for Cancer. Fonyo wasn’t charismatic, he wasn’t a celebrity like Rick Hansen the world travelling wheelchair Paralympic gold winner, Pan Am multi-medal winner (photo here) and marathoner. Fonyo was labeled a ‘copycat’ and often criticized, while enduring hardship and by showing the same determination as Terry Fox (the ‘hero’ who endured close hits by truckers, snow, who told people NOT to run with him, had angry arguments for days with his best friend and swore like a logger). Fonyo even had his Red Cross sponsorship funding pulled for that determination when running through snow in the prairies. Why? No one wants to dare the implication they funded someone to endanger their heath. Yeah, Red Cross, because running a marathon a day is good for you?

Meanwhile, Rick Hansen, who incorporated himself (literally, he is kind of like a church), announced his ‘Man in Motion’ world tour with the emphasis on his inspiration from Terry Fox (who was conveniently not around to tell stories of Rick being an ass). And he did this on the back of Fonyo, once it became apparent that Fonyo would make it (about 2 months from his finish at the Pacific Ocean). Rick was competitive and liked being in the limelight. He knew how to make a good press conference, and had camera presence and experience, and knew how to keep being in the limelight from his years as a world class athlete. Smart enough not to wheel across Canada while Steve Fonyo completed Terry Fox’s goal, Hansen and his ‘team’ (support but also media and photo op personell) took off.

Rick Hansen’s press conference had more people (click here to see) than the crowd to see Steve Fonyo, who had run almost 10,000 km to dip his toe in the pacific at mile zero.
The statue erected at mile Zero though, was of Terry Fox, who while inspiring it, never made it there.

So after the UK, Steve Fonyo gets the Order of Canada. He has run 15,000 km+, raised millions for charity, given up years of his life and….now what? Well, ‘what’ means finding a job, so he became a mechanic, up in rough BC (where oddly Rick and Terry both came from). No statue, just young and tired.

Rick Hansen meanwhile arrives back a hero, and while Fonyo fixed cars and drank, Hansen made himself into a ‘foundation’, which reads like a mix between a dictator’s press release and a meglomaniac, online here (Hope and Inspiration is found under ‘The Hansen Effect’). Rick does not get touched, he touches others: he raises the hand of a teen in a wheelchair during a motivation speech (under the section ‘Hope and Inspiration’), he sits in the limelight as the header for the eight lesson plans for kids 9 and up, like lesson one, ‘Wheeling against the World’s Weather’ where kids as step one ‘listen to the Rick Hansen story’ and the aim is: “Students will appreciate the magnitude of Rick and his team’s achievements during the Man In Motion World Tour.” Did Steve Fonyo like the irony that the very weather that had his funding slashed is now a testament to ‘appreciate the difficulties…’ Rick Hansen faced? Not so much. Steve, did cocaine, and yeah, burned out. If you have already run for years, and raised millions and they put up another person as a statue where YOU finished, and Rick Hansen is being paid to BE Rick Hansen and travel around the world while you fix cars, where do you go that is up? There were some driving under the influence, and cocaine.

What they don't tell is that Steve Fonyo'a Order of Canada couldn’t have been removed earlier. So why now? Because over 20 years after his accomplishment, in 2005 in order to try and get rid of an disbarred and corrupt lawyer, new ‘codes of conduct’ were not passed to get people OUT of the order of Canada. And of course, with the Olympics in Vancouver ('The World Comes to BC!'), where Steve, Terry and Rick are all from there are expectations.

Rick has just be made the co-mayor of the Olympic Village, while the organizers, against everything that Terry Fox stood for, announced a Terry Fox Award to be given at the 2010 Olympic games for “created to honour the Olympic athlete from any country who displays the most courage, humility and extraordinary athletic ability at the 2010 Winter Games.” In gagging irony it will be given the second to last day to an Able Bodied athlete. And Steve Fonyo, the mechanic and not beloved son? Why he gets ‘officially’ kicked into non-existence just before the start of the 2010 Olympic games.
While Steve Fonyo gets the shaft, so does Terry Fox, since Terry Fox created the Terry Fox Run, a run that specifically has no entry requirement, no entry fee, no ‘winners’ and NO AWARDS. Nor can any money go to anything but cancer and cancer research as anyone can and is encourage to set up a run (the Terry Fox Organization gives you all the materials and a booklet) “It does not have to be a big event – whether 100 people come out, or just 10, it still leads to progress for cancer research.” Run is actually a misleading word as you can walk, bike, hop, wheel, roller skate, skateboard, or horseride the 1K, 2K, 5K, 10K event. It is about community participation, it is about cancer experiences, remembering, and raising money for cancer research

Wheels in Motion also has a organized run, once which I have protested. Because while it raises money, much like the webpage which has on EVERY page a ‘donate now’ button, including a form on how to give gifts of publicly listed securities in the name of ‘every wheelchair user’ the money goes toward one particular type of wheelchair users; traumatic SCI’s. While Fonyo’s May 29th gets a few laps in school in memory, and Terry Fox gets a run for fun in Sept, Rick Hansen has lesson plan 6: Students will gain a greater appreciation for the magnitude of Rick Hansen’s Man In Motion World Tour and the incredible achievements Rick and his team accomplished.” The Rick Hansen Foundation announces proudly they raised $55,000 from school programs in three years. And the run has an entry fee, a fee that does NOT go to research, or programs, not even to ones for traumatic spinal cord injuries, it goes for his salary, his wife’s salary and for the cost of fundraising.

The 2008 audit showed that 65% of the money into the foundation went to programs, grants and endeavors. But that 67% of the money coming IN was from provincial and Federal grants. Yes, ALL of the programs under the name of Rick Hansen foundation (including the school program on learning the accomplishments of Rick Hansen) are paid for by the government. So what do the runs, those 'Wheel in Motion' fundraising runs for 'all people in wheelchairs', the other individual fundraising and donations which is 30% annually, pay for? They pay for salaries and for the aggressive fundraising that the organization does. ("Ald. Andre Chabot, Mayor Dave Bronconnier, event co-chair Barry Lindemann, and Ald. Joe Connelly, celebrate their team's hard work in the Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion relay race yesterday. The event raised more than $80,000 benefiting people living with spinal cord injuries") You wheeled/ran for spinal cord injuries, but you paid for Rick Hansen to be….Rick Hansen. And that makes me mad, the people lied to, including those with spinal cord injuries.

The fundraising page looks like any fortune 500 company: ): “We need to be able to attract, retain and motivate a team of highly-qualified individuals to help us continue to succeed, in a very competitive marketplace. The experienced leadership necessary to lead these complex initiatives is part of what makes RHF extraordinary. Our team is responsible for the success of our innovations and resulting impact we are able to have.” Wha? They are a charity right, or do they make advanced electronics?

And learning from Jerry Lewis, they pimp the children. And that is why I protest Rick Hansen, because he does not represent all wheelchair users, does not educate people on wheelchair or disability but he does USE people. He just doesn't educate them, not even to the complexities of Spinal Cord Injuries. His new poster children (seen on every page, right next to the Donate button): Six-year-old Aluki Chupik-Hall (scoliocis) (who had a ‘Rick Hansen Theme’ fifth birthday party) and thirteen year old Hisham Mohammad with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) whose message is ‘be like Rick’ are used to raise funds for traumatic Spinal Cord injuries. No information or education on SMA or childhood scoliocis is given, and misinformation, like when Hisham, with SMA refers to himself as a ‘parapalygic’ like the traumatic break at T10-T12 with Rick Hansen, there is no correction. We are lead to believe this is a mini Rick. Rick Hansen doesn’t have SMA, nor does he fund programs for SMA. However, if your kids are too old for the school lessons they can always go see, the Rick Hansen Play, Rick: the Rick Hansen Story (Ticket sales and school and other performances here).
Do I think Steve Fonyo got the shaft? Yeah. He made human mistakes and he paid for them. But he also raised millions of dollars over 25 years ago that while the only recognition given to him has been stripped away to silence him, the money raised isn’t about to be returned (or honored). I don't think he even gets free tickets to the Olympics? I bet the Mayor Rick Hansen does!

The 2010 Olympics seem to love playing with bodies as they have Terry Fox (who likely wouldn’t have made it into the paralympics and was about participation now having a named award given not to raise cancer, not to raise disability or accessibility awareness, sad that. Nor does it highlight that Canada is in the third DECADE of debating a National Disability Act but Awards celebrating ‘extraordinary athletic ability’: basically the guy who slogged it around with a home made leg doing a hop and step to grit his teeth and go on is created into an award for in-born athletic ability? For Able Bodied Athletes? Ohhh, listen, you can hear the rolling in the grave now!

The Terry Fox run/walk/wheel: I AM a survivor

I am a disease survivor. I had always rejected the word “survivor” because it seemed to me that people were trying to pretend that something was over when the effects lingered on, had changed them. Or they were trying to tell themselves or me that we had won a fight that wasn’t even about us. How can you win a fight against a cell which doesn’t die when it is supposed to and replicates? How can I fight against my own autoimmune system which protects me (and is now killing me).

When therapists and others would say that I was a sexual abuse survivor it would make me angry, “They went away!” I would almost shout in anger. I know what surviving IS, what doing what is necessary to pay the rent that month IS, or what living homeless in the woods is like because you don’t HAVE the money. That is survival. A guy or guys leaving your body because they are bored isn’t an indication of MY survival, at least to me. They could have kept torturing and fucking me OR they could have cut my throat OR they could have walked away to find someone else.

So I didn’t get it. I wasn’t saying other people weren’t survivors, I was just saying I wasn’t. Though I did have a problem when we label things with fight words when they are a part of us; you won the war by cutting off part of yourself, and that makes you a survivor, a victor against….your own body?

I am sorry if that offends anyone, which is not my intention, but I need to show how I think to show the change in thinking. I will still probably start laughing if someone starts referring to themselves as a “flu survivor.”

I did the Terry Fox 10K because Terry Fox has always been my hero ever since childhood. It was a beautiful day, perfect cool sunshine by the ocean. At the race they played a clip which would make you think Terry Fox started his run in Ontario instead of 1500 miles to the east. The days of sleeping in the van, eating out of the van, sleeping in the van. How they only got a hotel room was because the owner of the hotel’s son had cancer. How he was splashed, honked at, yelled at and almost hit by cars. Terry Fox was a nut. And every country at some time has their lovable nut. He happens to be Canada’s. And he was a lovable nut who had the official support of the Cancer Society of Canada. And he wanted to raise $1 from each person in Canada for Cancer by doing his thing, which was running across Canada. As I sat there in my chair and they played the tape it said, “When Terry asked to be taken to the hospital, the Run of Hope was over.” And I vehemently said, “It was NOT over.” Which got a few people looking at me. But it is a very important point, one which the people who do all the fundraising didn’t get. Terry was asked by many famous people if they could continue his run and he always replied, “I WILL go back and run.” Or “My run is not over.” Even in the hospital he maintained that he would go back and run again.

I couldn’t put it in words at the time but doing the Terry Fox run/wheel/walk with my friend who has crushed ankle and vertebrae enlightened me. I started the race beside a teenage girl and her team, she had what I believed was childhood Leukemia, and during the race gave the nod to a guy in his wheelchair. Racing I passed a man with a plain grip/hook hand prosthetic, and another with crutches, who had an amputation so high up the leg it was to the hip, who took over an hour on plain hospital crutches to do the 5K. He told me as I went by “ya got to use the momentum.”

There was in the eyes of people there some sort of understanding. We knew each other. We gave each other the nod. Yet what was it that we understood? It was the connection of someone who had been in the same war. The nod of people with the same attitude; which like Terry Fox, that they probably shouldn’t be here, like the woman holding on to her wheeled walker. They probably would, if they asked, be advised against ‘stressing themselves unnecessarily, particularly after what they had been through.’ They know the voices of the people who will never get it, who only see a 5K or a 10K as stress against a weakened system or strain on a healing amputation. Like running 22 miles a day and sleeping in the same stinking van.

See, I was putting the wrong emphasis. I thought people were (and some are) saying, I am a SURVIVOR. Well that day, the people mixed among those who were raising money were people whose life and attitude or who knew people who chose to state with their choices and actions, I AM a survivor. What is the difference? The first is the statement of someone who feels that what they feared or which attacked them is long gone, never to rise again. They are the victors, and the enemy is vanquished, they are SURVIVORS.

Me? I’ve been broken too many times to ever say it like that. And over the last few years I learned that it isn’t the disease you have, it is the way you live it. Neither I nor any of the other people whose recent or remembered experiences with cancer or other diseases who were there that day believed they had won, or that cancer would never return. They were not there to be plucky, or inspirational or courageous. And neither was Terry Fox. One of my favorite quotes from his is when he asked publicly for able bodied people to NOT run with him because while they were jogging, “I am running as FAST as I CAN.” That is what the man on crutches and I both recognized in each other, that neither of us deserved pity, or sympathy nor were we courageous, we recognized that the other was simply going as FAST as they COULD.
I AM a survivor. I AM because I choose to live my life in a way that gives me the best chance of survival but also because I am the one determining how to live, not my disease. At the Terry Fox run/walk/wheel they put a note on my back: "Pour water over and put in a cool place; do NOT heat and call....." With some help from my friends I will continue to determine how to live, and live as large as possible until I die: whether that is doing a little sexy dress up photo shoot until I have to be carried inside or trying for the last time possible this year to visit what I had set my mind to visit without even reading about it: the Hoh Rainforest. I wheel outside even though I cry from the pain; I exercise though I can’t sleep (from the pain) because I AM a survivor. And this society is not set up, not particularly ready for survivors. That is why the Terry Fox 1K/5K/10K is so important, because as people on bikes and children on tricycles go next to people walking with dogs, people in wheelchairs, on rollerblades, on horses, jogging, walking, with walking sticks, with frequent breaks, however they choose to reach their goal. We started at Mile Zero, the goal that Terry Fox never reached. But that’s what the Terry Fox run/walk/wheel was for me, an event to spread the word, once we accept that people have different impairments and different ways of reaching their goals, can interact together, can enjoy an event together.

And for me, I recognized a part of myself in seeing it in the mirrors of others faces. I AM a survivor because I choose how I will survive, how each day, week, month and goal will be spent, not the worriers and the non-sayers. I have been in the belly of the Beast and I have the beast inside of me. That is what every one of those faces said, they said, they KNOW that cancer or other disease will come back, that they live WITH that fact, and it is their living which marks them as a survivor.

Today, meeting with a “pain specialist” who told me both to “live within my pain” and didn’t GET IT, he didn’t understand my level of pain; not believing that I hallucinate from my intensity of pain. Indeed, he stated that he didn’t want to give me something like morphine (which would take my pain away) because it might give me constipation and I must have enough of that using the wheelchair. Fuck doc, removing all my pain for CONSTIPATION? I will take that trade any day. He said this exercise thing had to go, that I needed to sort of just sit at home and “learn to live within my pain.” I asked if he realized I had a degenerative terminal disease and he did. He said with a stern expression, “Those 10K’s definitely have to go!” and then talked about cutting badminton in half if not less, though I explained three times about how if I do NOT exercise, it will kill me faster. I just smiled at him while I determined to FIND a 10K this weekend and ENTER. He thought he was getting me ready for surviving what was coming. He wasn’t one of those who know that the quickest way to kill me was to kill my dreams. That what makes me go from seizures to badminton (or type, as I did yesterday with thick gloves on because four fingers had frostbite – and yes, I know that’s not logical, welcome to autonomic failure land).

I am not a person who puts themselves forward to represent a society or organization. I do wish people would fund things like depression which kills one person every seven minutes in the US, and I wish there WAS a 10K I could do to fund stopping sexual abuse (if you think the breast cancer numbers are huge, wait till the stigma of this race falls off and people show up). Yes, I want to raise money for stopping sexual abuse. I want those who are under care not to have the threat of receiving emotional or physical abuse and/or neglect and have no one care. But I believe these are things that anyone innately should be working toward, a world that makes only the best logical and emotional sense. So as odd and as selfish as it seems, I struggle to remain a survivor because then I can be there for people having a hard time, be someone who they can email or talk to, can be a person to send a card or gift.

For my races, I needed a shirt for people helping me to see each other easily. Laura sent these shirts, for those who help me at an event. This is the symbol on the back.

The shirts and seeing Linda and Cheryl and thinking of Laura I remember why I survive. Because I can reach out and do what so many seem to have forgotten, that it is not large organizations which make a difference to an individual, but rather another individual. Those t-shirts are living proof. I did the 10K becuase of three people, individual people who reached out. Linda and Cheryl have created a blog, if you want to look at it, called, A Girl's Gotta Fly.

Today, I had two specialists who could have made a difference. Both failed. I don’t want to fail, and though I have little income, little strength, and other significant obstacles, I want to be there for you. I want to care about you, because that is what was given as a gift to me, and is, almost every day. You want a post card, you know what to do, haven't got a postcard in a while, let me know (geez, I HAVE brain damage, so give me a hint now and then, okay, I'm not ignoring you).

If I had to make an event, I would make it like Terry Fox did, as inclusive as possible, with no winners, but equal participants. We were there with different mobility’s, different motivations and that was possible because one person inspired another person and where Terry Fox was not an organizer, the head of the Four Seasons was. He got the Marathon of Hope run/walk/wheels organized and keeps the dream alive. What dream? That if you want to do it, just because other people don’t understand that, or care, you still can. I was at that 10K not because I could get myself there by myself but becuase another couple people I knew could. And they wanted to keep my dream alive. So if I am here next year, I will do it again, whether it is in a hospital bed with a motor attached; because I AM a survivor, dying, yes, alone, no, a survivor.

Terry Fox 10K: preview

Hi, I still think those painkillers are candy: Yum yum! So I feel surprisingly well! In the race, my shoulder was killing me for the first 4 km, but then suddenly felt better. That's means it got better spontaneously and has nothing to do with a mind filled with endorphins, right? Here we are at the start. All three participated, though Linda and Cheryl were my pit crew; there were two other wheelchairs with pit crews too. Here we are ready to start: Linda and Cheryl for the 5K and me for the 10K (Cheryl noted using her cane that this was one of the few races that promoted and LIKED people with disabilities; becuase this was an event ABOUT getting to get together to remember Terry Fox. Some thought her skull tricked out cane was "cool.").

Here I am on my second lap, around 6km or so, I was one of the first 10 to the 2.5 km mark....but that was mostly downhill! Once I had to do the 2.5 km back uphill I quickly moved back into the pack. Some people recognized me from the HBC run. It was nice: not a lot of 5K, 10K where you see, foot scooters, children's bicycles, mountain bikes, two unicycles, some wheelchairs, an elderly woman using a walker with wheels, a guy on crutches, some children with their parents on tricycles and let's not forget some people running and walking.

I will try to catch up with the whole story one I am a bit more recovered. Or at least not hurting so much. I bet Cheryl will be cursing me for convincing her to do it in the morning (but I was really proud and happy to be in a race with Linda and Cheryl). Plus, she carried the med supplies to clean out and bandage my bleeding knuckle (that whole not feeling thing).

Reason to live #9: Because I can

Right now, I have no choices about my treatment, or if I will recieve treatment, or about the progression of my diseases. In some ways that is a blessing: where I do not having to weigh up the agony of Chemo versus a statistical percentage. I just went out for a wheel right now, and got frostbite on two fingers, it was 18 degrees C. out. The yellow, corpse white is now a bright red. Linda says over the phone that I might have to stay in a bubble. I said, maybe I should start wearing more of those armwarmers.

But progression aside I still can make choices of how I spend my energy, or what I do, within limits. There are those who can’t.

Collette, who comments here, is spending Sept. 6-7th walking 60K for breast cancer. I don't think she has ever walked 30km in one go. She made a choice.

Breast Cancer is not only the highest risk cancer in women, but 1% of those who get it are men. Yet for men, detection before it has moved to the bone is less frequent. So for those who have breast cancer history in their families, it is not just daughters but sons at risk too. In fact, one of the reasons fatality in men with breast cancer exists is because they are unaware that it can occur.

I know of women who have had breast cancer, because like any woman over the late 20’s I can’t imagine not knowing someone. Which is why Collette and the Weekend Warriors are spending two days walking 60 km. A fundraising choice, and a commitment toward a world where one day we don’t know of a friend or relative who, each week, spent the day before chemo crying. Who vomited, who had insomnia, who had their hair fall out, who had the visual aspects of their body and their identity reshaped for their survival. And those are considered the “lucky” ones.

There isn’t a 60K walk/wheel in my city or I would have joined up (hey, another couple first aid tent to rate!). But I will be doing the Breast Cancer Run in my City in early Oct.

You may be wondering what this has to do with my reasons to live? It is because every day and every choice I make, there are people in hospitals and hospices who do not have those choices. Last night, for the first time, I had to be fed, so yeah Raccoon, I know what that is like, and I’m guessing it doesn’t get any more exciting or dignified. I did insist that I did not actually need to be fed, as I could drop my face in the plate and eat that way. “Like a dog?!” the night worker said in shock, “But that does not give you dignity!”

“Lady,” I said, “After you’ve sucked as many pain pills off the floor as I have, you’ll have no illusions about dignity.”

After the series of seizures, or during, I don’t know exactly, I was able to use the built up fork to stab the food but couldn’t turn my hand or arm. And when I held the fork the other way, I WAS able to bring it to my face: like my forehead, my cheek, my nose, my hair, just not my MOUTH…..let's say the hand and eye coordination didn’t work. But in that, having something taken away, I realized that I still have many choices left, mostly thanks to the care workers who actually DO care about me and people like Linda and Cheryl. During the last few weeks I have woken up in the afternoon paralyzed. But thanks to a new listening system, Linda is able to move, transfer and transport me from my nap area into the study where I can work and communicate.

I live because I can live. I do because I can. And I try when I can’t.

In a few short weeks Collette will start her 60 km walk, and I believe that she will make it. I think it would be nice to drop in to her webpage here and give her a message of support (click on ‘friend’ and donate $10 or more, which is $9 American and 5 pounds UK, all of which is tax deductible – and you can leave your message). There is a list here of where the money goes, though I personally will say that I was hoping for a LOT more money focused toward some sort of new mammogram technique which isn’t so darn painful.

But if she does not finish all 60K this year, that is not what is important, because after all, here in Canada, one of greatest athletes is the one who didn’t finish the race, Terry Fox. It is the dream, the choice, the attempt which matters.

As for me, the following week, I will be participating in the Terry Fox Run, a race which has no winners, no medals, not even an entry fee, just people getting together, raising funds for a world where there are more choices and less cancer. The Terry Fox run is unique not just because he wished to eliminate the competitive nature but because people of bicycles, on roller blades and wheelchairs are welcome. Depending on the city, dogs and even horses (or people on horses) are welcome to participate as well. For those in Victoria with dogs, the run in Central Sannich welcomes dogs, roller bladers, cyclists and wheelchairs. I will be going to Mile Zero which has a 5K and 10K. Geee, I wonder which distance I will pick? It has never been about the medals. It has been about the choices.

There are days when the beast which are these diseases and this pain is all over me, there are days when the beast which is the cruel crushing medical system will roll over me. But there will be moments, and minutes, and hours and days when I make choices, when I decide what to do. When I live because I can. I talked to Linda today about how I feel ever more so disconnected to the rest of humanity, that what I feel and experience is so far away from what they imagine, what I of a year ago could imagine. We talked about how it would be if things could be different, and what life would be like if her credit card was all paid up. I immediately said, “Well, if that happened, then I would spent it all on anime and other items that I would promptly give away!” And she laughed and said that is EXACTLY why she is getting a limit like $100 put on the card. I made her laugh. It was just a moment but I made her laugh.

Yes, one day I will have to live in a bubble of sorts, and probably be fed more and more meals. And I wish that one of those choices would allow me to wheel with Collete and Team Weekend Warriors in Toronto. I think doing 60km would be VERY tiring on the arms. But maybe, with friends I wouldn’t notice the pain until LATER.

I live because I can. I live because my grandfather can not. I live because dying is easy, because giving up is easy. I live because spending 7 hours to prepare and then recover from feeding squirrels for 45 minutes is still feeding squirrels. I live because choices can be made. I live because people want to take those choices from me. While I can, I live.

Terry Fox, in the interview in which he ended his run, and then while undergoing treatment set up the Terry Fox Run, said, “I just wish people would realize that anything is possible if you try. Dreams are made if people try.”