Doug Lamb and Ed Rice finally met in person Thursday — the site, fittingly, was at the foot of the monument paying tribute to Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope.
The Canadian Lamb and U.S. counterpart Rice were the first people to organize Terry Fox runs outside Canada.
Rice organized a Terry Fox run at Bangor, Maine, in 1982. Lamb, who now lives in Victoria, started the runs in 1981 while a graduate student at Purdue University in Illinois. Lamb’s mother died of breast cancer in June 1981, the same month Terry Fox’s death from cancer put an end to the Marathon of Hope, a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research.
Fox had lost a leg to cancer and was using a prosthetic limb. He decided not to let the amputation get in the way of his national marathon.
“When I heard they were going to start a national run for Terry Fox in September 1981, I wanted to participate … but it was hard for me to come back to Canada, so I said I’d start my own,” Lamb said.
Lamb organized a casual run at an indoor facility at Purdue and was surprised by the number of people who showed up to take part. Many U.S. participants already knew about Fox and how cancer interrupted his fundraising run.
“They had heard about Terry Fox and they wanted to know more about him,” Lamb said.
Lamb raised about $2,000 for the Canadian organizers. The next year, he raised about $15,000 at the Purdue event.
Students approached Lamb and said they wanted to organize future runs for the cause.
Rice heard about Lamb’s success with the Terry Fox run and wanted to organize his own in his hometown of Bangor, Maine.
Fox caught Rice’s attention when the Canadian was running across the Maritime provinces. Rice, a runner, took an interest and watched the progress of Fox’s journey via the Canadian TV channel he could get in Maine.
Rice was at a low point and he looked to Fox as a hero.
He remembers the heartbreaking footage of Fox telling news crews that his run had ended due to the return of cancer.
“That hit me so hard because I was feeling so sorry for myself — I decided that’s it, I’m not feeling sorry for myself anymore,” said Rice.
When Fox died, Rice saw the report on the TV news.
“I started crying and I went out and did my run,” he said. “I wanted to write him but I never did. I decided to raise money to for him. I had no idea Canadians were setting up tribute runs, too.”
The idea took hold in Maine, and several Terry Fox Runs were held across the state; the runs endured for 20 years and raised $125,000.
There was some controversy over Rice’s runs because they were timed events with trophies for the winners. Terry Fox Runs in Canada are non-competitive.
Rice also had an issue with the donated funds which, in the U.S., went toward the American Cancer Society, which has substantial overhead.
He finally found a local sponsor in the Maine owner of several Best Western Hotels. The hotelier’s son had fought cancer.
They’re not called Terry Fox Runs anymore, but funds raised by the Bangor runs are going to cancer research. Rice now lives in New Brunswick with his Canadian wife.
This year, the Terry Fox Run in Canada will take place Sept. 14. More than $650 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research through the Terry Fox Foundation.
