The Canadian Cancer Society hadn’t dealt with anyone like Terry Fox before – today we’d call him a disrupter
Bill Vigars was the director of public relations and fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society. He is the author ofWhen Terry Fox set out to run across Canada on his prosthetic leg to raise awareness and money for cancer research, he had support from the very top of the Canadian Cancer Society.
Tens of thousands of Canadians volunteer for the daffodil campaign every year and millions of dollars are raised . The project requires the full attention of the senior people at the society and its provincial chapters. Perhaps that explains why the Canadian Cancer Society could not drop everything it was doing in the spring of 1980 to help some crazy kid with his cross-country run. It’s not that people weren’t unsympathetic or unappreciative.
I spent a few days with Terry in New Brunswick and watched him get up at 4 a.m., climb into the donated Ford van, and begin running on the shoulder of the highway at 5 a.m. in the pitch dark. I saw him run all day long, looking strong and determined yet somehow fragile when the 18-wheelers rumbled past him, until he’d clocked his 26 miles. And I saw him wake up the next morning and do it all over again.
I hadn’t been at the Canadian Cancer Society long enough to be deeply invested in the old ways of doing things or to fear change. In fact, I’d been hired to shake things up a bit. And I’d had the advantage of having spent time with Terry. I’d seen him in action. I’d felt his commitment. I knew how he moved people. I was genuinely caught up in the unique brand of excitement he generated.
Otherwise, things were going well. I was collecting positive news to share with Terry. Toronto Maple Leafs star Darryl Sittler was going to meet him and we’d lined up a Toronto Blue Jays game for him and a visit to the CN Tower – items that he’d mentioned were on his bucket list. Things were falling into place. I felt confident that we’d be able to do almost anything Terry wanted.
Harry had a sly smile on his face and a solution. “Well, technically you can’t go into Quebec to help. It’s a different division. But if you want to take a vacation, you can do anything you want.”“You have to do what you have to do,” Harry said.My assistant, Deborah, called a sign company and ordered a round metal sign to fit over the spare tire on the van’s rear door. It would be ready late Wednesday night.
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