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The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal Limb maker recalls Terry Fox, ordeal of run DERWIN GOWAN Laurie Menzies' own running days are over, but he still encourages people to enter the annual Terry Fox Runs across Canada. Mr. Menzies played a crucial role in the cross-Canada Marathon of Hope in 1980. He and his son Allan repaired Mr. Fox's spare artificial legs from the time he set out from St. John's, Nfld., on April 12, 1980, until he crossed the Quebec border. Mr. Fox spent an afternoon the A. R. Menzies & Sons shop on his way through Fredericton. Mr. Menzies does not recall the exact date, but still remembers Terry Fox. "He was a great lad, that Terry," Mr. Menzies said in a telepphone interview this week. "I thought he was a marvelous person, he was certainly set to achieve his goals... it was sad how it came to an end that way, but he was set to do what he was going to do." "He was a real inspiration to other amputees . . . he encouraged a good many amputees to push on with their lives and do what they want to do." "If there ever was a man with a mission it was Terry Fox, because he was hellbent to do this." Laurie Menzies has met a lot of amputees since 1943 when he started working at the business his father Allan R. Menzies started in 1920 - making artificial limbs and braces. Laurie is retired today, but his son Allan carries on. Terry Fox, born in Winnipeg and raised in Port Coquitlam, B.C., lost his right leg to cancer in 1977. He set out three years later to hop-skip across Canada on one good leg and one prosthesis to raise money for cancer research. He covered 5,373 kilometres in 143 days before renewed cancer, this time in his lungs, forced him to call it off at Thunder Bay, Ont., on Sept. 1, 1980. He died on June 22, 1981, at 22. Annual Terry Fox Runs across Canada and around the world have raised millions of dollars for cancer research since then. This will be the 21st year. "It's still growing, to be honest," said Jason Letto of Saint John, director of the Terry Fox Foundation for New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Fifty-five countries were holding Terry Fox runs at last count. This year, Mr. Letto said, runners and organizers will observe a minute of silence in honour of the people killed by terrorists in the United States on Tuesday. "The tribute I would pay to him is that he had such an influence on younger amputees," Mr. Menzies said. He thinks of the pain that he knows Mr. Fox suffered every day. "From the time he left Newfoundland until he got to the Quebec border, we had one of his legs," Mr. Menzies said. He believes that Mr. Fox had a total of three artificial legs, with one or two of them always in the shop. Mr. Fox worked on his legs himself during that afternoon at A. R. Menzies Ltd. "He was wearing a swelling socket prostheses . . . but with modular parts," he recalled. "The socket is the most important part because it is an intimate fit." The stump of Mr. Fox's leg had to fit into that socket. Mr. Menzies says that stump must have hurt from the constant pounding on the road from St. John's to Thunder Bay. "The next morning it must have been just pure pain to put that back on, but he did."
Terry Fox Runs will take place in 55 New Brunswick communities. Telephone the Terry Fox Foundation at (506) 658-0181 or 1-888-TFOXRUN for details.
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