It was 1980, and Kerry Anne Holloway was just a kid, squabbling with her brother in the back of an RV on a highway in Ontario, when an adult in the vehicle told them to shut up and watch the man running outside.
She could see him out the window up ahead. There was a distinct double-hop stride, the grey shorts, the striped sneakers.
“That’s when I got it. I really understood we were seeing something special,” Holloway says.
That man was Terry Fox. He was traversing Canada on a prosthetic leg, raising money for cancer research.
“I don’t really make many excuses for myself after witnessing something like that,” she says.
Holloway was nine, her brother was eight, and their dad Bill Vigars, the “rainmaker” publicity agent for the Canadian Cancer Society, was taking his kids along for the Marathon of Hope’s two-month stretch through Ontario.
Publicity for the marathon was building. Fox met then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau and Canada’s governor general; when Terry did the kickoff, with his good leg, at a CFL game in Ottawa; the massive welcome crowd at Nathan Phillips Square, where Terry met hockey legends Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler. They were iconic moments in Canadian history, and Holloway got to see it all through the eyes of a child.
“Because I was a kid on the run, I saw a different side of him,” she says. “I saw the lighter side of him. I think that was part of the great thing of me and my brother being on the run, being with him, and he would joke around and relax with us.”
Terry was up and running before dawn, covering the length of a marathon each day, so the kids wouldn’t usually see him until the evenings. Holloway and her brother would sometimes run alongside Fox or hand him water at the pit stops, and they listened to his speeches along the way.
“When he was speaking to people, I could see how committed and genuine he was and how important it was connecting to people,” she says.
The kids weren’t supposed to bug Fox when he was in his hotel room at night, but one time, her brother visited him anyway. When her dad came looking, Fox hid him under the bed.
“It was an amazing adventure,” Holloway says.
Looking back, Holloway describes Fox as determined.
“I knew that obviously it was a huge challenge for him,” she says. “There was a seriousness to him, and you could see that determination in him.”
Every day, Holloway thinks about the experience and how lucky she was to have known Terry.
“I carry a part of him with me in terms of not giving up on my goals and having that mental determination and that mental strength,” she says.
The Marathon of Hope also shaped Holloway’s career path. She’s chosen jobs that involve helping people in her community and now works as a clinical counsellor. She also talks to elementary school students about her experience.
Local residents will have the chance to hear Holloway speak at this year’s Terry Fox Run in Burnaby. The event is set for Sunday, Sept. 20 at Swangard Stadium in Central Park (see sidebar for details).
“We’re all part of the Marathon of Hope. Participating in the run is basically continuing what Terry set out to do, which is raise money and raise awareness for cancer research,” Holloway says.
Terry never made it across Canada. He ran 5,373 kilometres over 143 days before cancer caught up with him close to Thunder Bay. He died on June 28, 1981, at Royal Columbian Hospital. He was 22.
