Young Writers Society

Last year, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corportation) did a program called "The Greatest Canadian." On the top one hundred list were some of our favourtie celebrities, who are also great patriots who never forgot where they were from, authors who helped define Canada's literary world, the nation's top politicians of our history, and scientists who worked to better humanity and the world. In the top ten were three of our most significant prime ministers, a politician who paved the way for what two of those politicians did for our nation, Frederic Banting, one of the scientists who discovered insulin, Alexander Graham Bell, two of Canada's hockey icons who are also great humanitarians and embody all of the qualities of what it means to be Canadian, David Suzuki, a scientist whose life's work has been to save the planet from environmental disaster, and a remarkable young man named Terry Fox.

Terry Fox never lived to a ripe old age. In fact, as far as I am aware, he never graduated from university. He never had the chance. That's because he died of cancer when he was still in his early twenties. How does a young man who died of cancer twenty-five years ago compete with our national game, scientists who worked to better humanity and save the environment, and the politicians who made Canada great? Most people died of cancer twenty-five years ago. With the form of cancer Terry had, ostiosarcoma, only about ten percent of people survived beyond five years, and most had to have the leg the cancer was in amputated. Not anymore. These days, bone cancer is very treatable. The survival rate has now become the death rate, and amputation is a last resort.

This young man who died of cancer twenty-five years ago came in second place in the final vote, second to Tommy Douglas. He has a school named after him, and now has a new one-dollar coin with him on it. This is the first time in Canadian history any person but a prime minister or a queen has been on our money. As I've said, bone cancer, and many other forms of cancer, have become very treatable today. One of the main reasons for this is because of something Terry Fox started twenty-five years ago. A dollar for every Canadian. That was his dream. Even after his leg was removed, he ran more than halfway across Canada from Nova Scotia to Thunder Bay to raise money and awareness for a disease that, at the time, people didn't think about unless they or someone they cared about had it. Sadly, his cancer returned, and he died before he was able to finish

"Terry Fox defined dedication." This is was the commcercial for his new commenerative coin says. And that's true. Even with only one leg, Terry Fox ran a marathon a day. He recieved the highest honours our nation can give, and became the youngest person to ever recieve the Order of Canada. Today, there are all kinds of fund raisers for cancer research, many of which might not have existed if it hadn't been for the way Terry inspired us all. Pretty much every school and city in Canada has its own Terry Fox Run, and there are runs held all over the world in his name. You don't even have to run. You can walk, skate, bike, crawl. The only winners and losers are the people with cancer who survive thanks to the research that is done, and the ones who do not survive.

A dollar for every Canadian. Well, Runs in Canada have achieved that goal and beyond. Canada has a population of just over 30 million. Around the world and at home, Runs have raised over 300 million dollars. Terry may not have been able to finish his marathon of hope, but every Canadian, and millions of others around the world, have decided to continue it for him.

This is very inspring to me.

It's great how you open it; got me reading and interested right away. Then you intrigued me even more with your second paragraph; sometimes, actually most of the time, asking a question to the reader doesn't work very well, but the question you asked just pulled me in more.

However, I never quite got why Terry Fox was one of the top 100 Canadians. It certainly sounds he did good work, and his story is certainly inspirational, but you never really say why it was so important. That is, how is it that he advanced research into bone cancer? You do bring in reasons for this, but none are developed enough to fully explain it. It would've been nice for the article to have been longer and more in-depth.

Overall, though, this was really good and it's always great to hear a true story like that. Can't imagine how much dedication it must take to do what Terry did.

His efforts, and efforts inspired by his, raised the money needed to advance research and build treatment facilities that might not have existed otherwise. It was his dedication and concern for others rather than himself, as well as his ability as a leader, and the legacy he left behind, that put him on the list. I might have made it longer, but I was on a library computer at the time and they only give you half an hour. But I guess the fact that you don't understand just shows how different Americans and Canadians really are. I recently saw a list of the people who were voted as the greatest American. I didn't know who all of them were, but out of those one hundred, I think maybe five or ten of them would have made it onto the Canadian list.