In our life, during failures, disgrace, if physically down – most of them
loose confidence and give up. Those never became leaders in the society. Only
few of them accept & turn the negative part as an opportunity to come up as
successful beings. Mahatma Gandhi was pushed out of the train twice, but still
he bounced back and used it as tool for freedom struggle. One such inspiration
is from the life of Terry Fox.
Terry Fox during his young days
at college was a very good sprinter. He also had interest in many other outdoor
games. He was dreaming to perform one day at Olympics. Once he experienced knee
pain and diagnosed the same at a hospital. The doctor after performing the
diagnosis, informed Terry - knee was affected with Cancer. Terry was just 21
years at this time, with full of dreams & was shell shocked when doctor informed they have to cut his legs
till knees cap to avoid cancer cells spreading the whole body. He underwent the
operation and got his one leg cut till knee cap.
Terry’s sprinting dream came to a
standstill & was little depressed. His coach approached him & consoled “Terry
, you have just lost one leg. If you have a determined heart & goal - you
can still achieve what you want”. Fox felt it right. He decided to collect fund
for free treatment of cancer patients who were suffering just like him. He
decided to put on an artificial leg – and travel from one point of Canada to
another as an marathon event to raise fund of 1 lakh US dollars . He named this
event as the “Terry Fox’s Marathon of hope”. The doctors were against this step
& did not support Terry. However he got support from his college friend.
The run started the next day.
Terry fixed an artificial leg and started the marathon run. Initially the artificial
leg was very painful. Terry withstood the pain and continued the run, he used
to cover 30 miles a day. Initially nobody noticed, but later after 10 days –
terry started developing pain in the knees and it started bleeding slowly. But
still terry knotted a bandage cloth & continued the run. The TV , press channels started following up
and terry was the news among people. One day he got an opportunity to meet the
prime minister of the country. The prime minister asked Terry about his purpose
for the run. Terry replied “Till I met you , my aim was to raise 1 lakh US
dollars fund , but now my enthusiasm is still developed and I shall continue to
run till 10 lakh US dollars are raised”. The minister did not show much
interest in these words. Terry kept running. Day by day, terry became popular
all over the country , and funds were raised from all ends.
Cancer is his leg had developed
and spread to most of his body including his lungs now. The doctors advised
terry to stop the run and warned he has less days of life now. Terry then
replied – “Oh , I have less time now & should run still faster then , I
need to collect dollar from each people of the county and raise 20 lakh US
dollars” and continued the run. On the day when the funds were raised , he collapsed & was admitted to hospital. He was a hero
by that time & the funds raised had reached the cancer hospital. When the
doctors informed Terry will not be able to stand also , a young guy approached
Terry and asked “What to do now ?”. Terry with the same spirit replied “You run
behalf of me , Also Include others in the run”. Many people were inspired by these
words and participated in the marathon run to create awareness about cancer. After
few days , Terry died. His name remained legendary in the history.
When a ball is thrown on the
ground , it bounces back to our hands and still higher depending on the force
we throw the ball. When a rubber ball has that capacity, why we humans who has
larger amount of power collapse fearing failure? Are we incapable to bounce
back unlike a ball ?
Hope you enjoyed the story . Pass
on this message to your loved and dearest ones if worth.
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