Bounce back like a ball – an inspiring short story of Terry Fox

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.