Terry Fox: The man who ran a marathon with one leg for 143 days

In 1976, an 18-year-old teenager was in a car accident. He collided with a truck that shattered his own car. Surprisingly, this young man escaped the accident unscathed.

He just had a knee pain that he thought was caused by the collision. But as time passed, this pain did not go away. Moreover, he was an active basketball player at school and assumed that the pain was caused by stress.

But after the basketball season ended, the pain was still there and he decided to see a doctor. Four months after his accident, he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a type of bone cancer that usually starts in the knee. Doctors said his best chance of survival was amputation of the leg followed by chemotherapy.

Terrance Stanley Fox CC OD (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated due to cancer, he embarked on an east-to-west cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

On March 9, 1977, five days after diagnosis, doctors amputated the boy's right leg 15 cm above the knee.

The young man's name was Terry Fox and, like any 18-year-old boy, he was shocked to hear that he had cancer.

With so many things you plan to do in life, it's hard to imagine what such a diagnosis might mean. No matter how empathetic we may be, it's impossible to understand how Terry Fox felt in those days.

But he chose not to focus on the negatives. In fact, a few weeks after the amputation, he started playing golf with his father on a prosthetic leg. However, losing his leg did not eliminate cancer. So much so that he continued to receive chemotherapy for about 1.5 years after the operation.

During this time, Fox was impressed by how he saw other cancer patients suffer. Inspired by Dick Traum, the first runner to complete the 1976 New York City Marathon with a prosthetic leg, he decided to run in Canada to raise cancer awareness.

This is how the "Hope Marathon" was born. After training for over a year, Terry Fox started this nearly impossible marathon in Canada in April 1980.

He ran a marathon a day for 143 days. Remember, Terry Fox was a one-legged cancer patient. He ran in rain, wind, storm and pain.

Even though he didn't finish his marathon, he did something no one else had. After 5,372 kilometers, the cancer spread to his lungs and he had to stop on September 1, 1980. Ten months later, at the age of 23, Terry passed away.

What motivated this young man? Despite facing one of life's greatest challenges, Terry Fox did not give up. In fact, instead of curing his pain, it made it worse and doubled it.

When we look at our own lives, we often look for ways to eliminate pain. We look for something to treat our pain, whether physical or mental. Actually, this is perhaps an escape.

In this regard, Terry has the following words:

"It was satisfying to do the hard stuff. It's an incredible feeling. The pain was there, but it didn't matter."

It's a completely different mindset. Most people have a negative relationship with difficulties. When things get tough, they quit the job. What if you changed your mindset?

Instead of running away from the challenge, you face it. For this, maybe you should try to enjoy while doing difficult things. Yes, let's face it, it's not easy.

Doing hard things really helps you understand why humanity is running away from it. Comfort is easy. It requires zero effort. But we don't think about it when we're in the middle of something difficult. We immediately look for an easy way out.

But starting a business, building a relationship, getting a fit body, staying happy, learning a new language, traveling the world, improving your skills – these are all difficult.

These difficulties should not hinder you. If you want to live your life without regrets, there is only one thing you can do: give your all!