Terry Fox never wanted the story to be about him.
asserted
story → want → him
He wanted everyone to focus on other cancer patients and what could be done to help them by raising money.
uncertain
what → want → money
But a young man running across the country with a hop-skip step to propel his prosthetic leg forward was so awe-inspiring that, 46 years later, school kids across Canada still lace up their running shoes every fall to raise money in his name.
asserted
kids → run → name
Now, the Terry Fox Foundation has received its largest single donation — $25 million from the Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation — to support a national network that connects cancer centres to speed up research and matches patients to better treatments based on the unique profile of their tumours.
asserted
that → receive → tumours
“Canada has extraordinary cancer researchers, clinicians and institutions,” the Tanenbaums said in a statement.
asserted
Tanenbaums → have → statement
“The opportunity now is to connect that expertise in ways that allow everyone to learn faster and patients everywhere to benefit.”
asserted
patients → connect → ways
Health Canada co
asserted
Canada → co → ?
funds the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network and the federal government’s matching support brings the gift’s impact to $50 million.
asserted
support → fund → million
The gift was announced Thursday at the Illuminarium in Toronto during the foundation’s launch of “Powered by Terry,” an immersive experience and claymation film that highlights how the end of his run was just the beginning for the researchers, patients and the public who continue the work.
asserted
who → announce → work
“We’ve told the story of Terry very well,” said Jim Woodgett, president and scientific director of the Terry Fox Research Institute, which leads the cancer centres network.
asserted
which → tell → network
“We now need to do a better job of informing the public of what we’re doing with the funding which they’re raising.”
asserted
they → need → which
Providing the right treatment for each patient
The network is a national initiative to accelerate the use of precision oncology — personalized cancer treatment that uses the genetic and molecular makeup of a patient’s tumour — to provide the right treatment for each patient.
asserted
that → provide → patient
Its national database helps researchers understand why some patients respond to treatment and others don’t, and how to target treatments more effectively.
asserted
others → help → treatments
The network, which includes 57 member institutions, has the genomic and clinical data from more than 16,000 cancer patients and has already guided care for more than 1,500 people.
asserted
which → include → people
“We’re really now looking at cancers as individual diseases, and you have to treat the patient, rather than the disease,” Woodgett said.
asserted
Woodgett → look → disease
“One patient’s disease is not the same as another patient’s disease necessarily, and getting that information beforehand can help to optimize the type of therapy and to avoid therapies which are just not going to be very effective.
asserted
which → get → therapies
While that work continues, the next step is expanding access to this gold standard of care.
asserted
step → continue → care
Right now, these new approaches are primarily being used in major urban centres, and the goal is to expand that to the rest of the country to give Canadians a better shot at beating cancer wherever they live
asserted
they → use → cancer
, Woodgett said.
asserted
Woodgett → say → ?
How cancer care has changed since the Marathon of Hope
Cancer research and treatment has come a long way since Terry Fox dipped his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic Ocean in St. John’s.
asserted
Fox → change → John
But Woodgett said the chemotherapy regimen he received for his osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer, hasn’t actually changed very much.
asserted
he → say → osteosarcoma
“But the outcomes are far better,” he said.
asserted
he → say → ?
That’s because it tends to be caught earlier, reducing the risk of the cancer spreading, and limb-saving surgeries allow more patients to avoid amputations.
asserted
patients → ’ → amputations
Terry Fox was 18 when his right leg was amputated above the knee and he started 16 months of chemotherapy.
asserted
he → amputate → chemotherapy
He was 21 when he began his run, covering 5,373 kilometres in 143 days — roughly a marathon a day for over four months — before he was finally forced to stop just outside Thunder Bay.
asserted
he → begin → Bay
The cancer had spread to his lungs.
asserted
cancer → spread → lungs
He was 22 when he died in 1981.
asserted
he → die → 1981
The foundation often returns to Terry Fox’s own words: “I’m going to do my very best to make it, I’m not going to give up.
asserted
I → return → it
But I might not make it … if I don’t, the Marathon of Hope better continue.”
uncertain
Marathon → make → Hope
The Aporia
