- [Voiceover] Is a courageous, young, strong man,
who has the courageousness and strength to perform the
opening kickoff for today the second time this evening.
(cheering)
- Something like that enters nobody's mind.
It just happens just like that to anybody.
He was having such a great year.
It was his first year at going to University SFU
and playing basketball for the team up there,
and it was just.
Nothing could have happened better for Terry
at that year and for the first year at University.
Everything was going great for him.
The night before Terry's operation, we just came in to
meet in his hospital room, and I kind of got worked up
about it a little bit during the day.
What was was I gonna say to Terry?
You know, being his older brother, wanting to say
something positive, and I didn't do a very good job,
and it's just one of those things.
I wasn't very old.
I was only 19, and all I could think of saying to Terry
at the time was, Terry, why do you have to have cancer?
Why not me?
Why not somebody else?
Why you?
All your dreams are coming true, you're going Simon Fraser
to get a degree.
You're playing basketball at the highest level there.
Why you?
Terry's answer immediately was, why not me, Fred?
I've been told all my life I'm not the biggest,
I'm not the strongest, I'm not the fastest,
or the smartest.
This is just another challenge I have to overcome.
He had accepted what he had been dealt and
was gonna go on beyond that and turned everything
to be positive.
It was something I'll never forget.
Terry and I have always been competitors against
each other, always trying to outdo each other and...
always being competitive.
He's probably outdone me in everything he's done,
and even me being older than him,
he's always been better than I have in different
things that he's done.
He's always gonna know what to do better I have,
and he's always won, I think.
I've seen Terry perform before.
I've seen Terry compete before.
I've seen Terry be up against obstacles and work hard
to overcome the things that he met.
So, when he said he was gonna run across Canada,
I kinda said, yeah, go for it.
I was totally on board right off the bat,
because he had that determination that
he would make that.
That's jut the way Terry was.
He would have made it if the cancer hadn't returned,
but that happened, and that's where we are today.
I don't think I would have every expected the
Terry Fox runs to be where they are today.
Who would've never ever have know that?
Our mom and dad were even told after the
first couple years in 1981 that the Terry Fox Run
wasn't gonna last very long.
But, it's been the teachers across the country,
mothers and fathers, grandparents who talk to
their children about Terry Fox, and the people who
saw Terry and have been committed to his dream
are why where we are today in raising over $650 million
after 34 years.
It's just an amazing thing.
That money has made a huge difference to the
thousand and thousands of people who have been
diagnosed with cancer.
When you consider where cancer research was 34 years ago
or even beyond that in 1977, almost 40 years ago when
Terry was first diagnosed, Terry was told he might have
a 15%, 20% chance of surviving.
He had to lose part of his right leg.
And today, in many, many cases the survival rate is
somewhere, you know, 80%, 85%.
In most cases the person being diagnosed doesn't
have to lose a limb because of the cancer they've got.
They've got other ways to dealing with that.
If that's any indication of what the future is,
it looks pretty good.
But, again, researchers need more money to make
that future look brighter, and we may not have that...
ultimate cure yet, but we're gonna get to a day when,
hopefully, people will be able to live that much longer
after their diagnosis.
Oh, boy.
So, how do I word that?
What would be more important, Terry being alive today
or the legacy that he left?
That's a very difficult question.
I think I know how Terry would answer
that question, and Terry would probably say...
the legacy that he's left is more important.
Terry wanted it to, his goal and dream was to make
a difference and to find a cure for cancer, and I think
Terry might have realized that wherever the
Terry Fox Foundation is, where cancer research is today,
might not be where it is if he was alive.
Who knows what the response would have been
if he had finished in Vancouver Island like he wanted to,
and what would have happened with his legacy after that?
Would people have forgotten?
And, who knows?
For me, I would want Terry back.
I'm being a little bit selfish in that, I guess, but
where Terry would want to continue the impact
that he's had on so many people's lives.
What keeps me going is knowing that Terry isn't
here today to continue his dream, and he's passed
that on, not only to our family to continue that,
but to so many Canadians across this country and beyond.
Terry had a dream, and we're continuing that legacy.
Terry loved the support, but loved people making
donations to cancer research more, and that's
what's important.
That's what's gonna find a cure down the road.
(Clapping)
- Game on!
- And, hopefully, we can assist you in making your run
the best ever, and maybe your school will do a
school challenge that will involve your students
raising as much money as they can, so you'll be
a super hero, just like the students did here at
Harmony Heights in Ontario.
(Laughing)
- Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
Go team go!
- He says he goes around thinking everybody here
doesn't think he's gonna make it.
He won't believe in himself, but I believe he's
gonna make it, and there's no doubt in my mind
he's not gonna make it.
We're going to perform the opening kickoff for today for
today the second time this evening.
(Cheers)
