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Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope driver and best buddy visits Penticton Terry Fox Run

There was no shortage of stories yesterday in the crowd of 200-plus that made their way around the 1K, 2K, and 5K variants of the 2019 Penticton Terry Fox Run.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

But there was one fellow whose connection with the event went a lot deeper than most.

He wasn't there for the beginning of the event. He showed up as the runners and walkers - and the occasional cyclist - were mid-course. He flagged down organizer Kevin Harvey and chatted a bit, then stood at the finish line and continued chatting with anyone who sidled up.

He came to Penticton a couple of years ago, he said, to help his very sick mom, then stayed here after she passed to help his sick father.

His name is Doug Alward. Forty years ago, Alward was at the epicenter of one of the most iconic moments in Canadian history, a moment that rocked the world and would ultimately spawn the thousands of Terry Fox Runs that take place today.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who> Doug Alward at the 2019 Penticton Terry Fox Run

Alward drove the van, cooked the food and was the closest confidant of Terry Fox during his astonishing 1980 Marathon of Hope. He was there with him when it began in Newfoundland, he was there when it finally and deservedly gained international fame and he was there when Fox's cancer spread to his lungs and forced him to cut it short.

He was also there when the concept first formed in 1979 and yesterday he had a little story to tell, a story about willpower, friendship and the genesis of the Marathon of Hope.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who> Doug Alward in the middle of yesterday's action

"To be honest," he started, "I was a little skeptical when Terry envisioned he could raise a lot of money doing this. I said, 'Terry, no one has ever raised more than $20,000 going across the country,' but it was almost like a fury in him that it was going to happen."

Alward was Fox's best friend through their high school years in Port Coquitlam and he'd seen him lose his right leg to cancer in 1977. He was now learning just how determined his buddy could be.

"He seemed to have a sense of destiny that this was his mission. I guess being in the children's ward with kids dying of cancer right in front of him, he said, 'I gotta do something about this.'"

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who> Doug Alward chats with Penticton run organizer Kevin Harvey

One problem, according to Alward, was that Fox wasn't exactly a big fan of running.

"Yeah, this was a guy who didn't even like it," he said with a smile. "I tried to get him out for the cross country running team in high school, but he'd always rather play basketball or soccer."

"Yet three years later, he's calling me with this idea of running across Canada for cancer research. I almost dropped the phone. I said, 'Terry, I couldn't get you to run 20 minutes on two legs, and now you want to run a marathon a day across the country? I couldn't even conceive of it."

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

Alward pitched right in anyway though. He was a good high school runner (and still runs today), and he says he advised Fox to start slow and build up as his body adapts. "And the first time we went to the track together, he couldn't make it around once."

"But Terry saw an article in Runner's World that featured a man who'd done the New York City Marathon in the same condition, and that got him going again."

"But artificial limbs back then weren't the same as the ones today where they can move pretty fast. He had to bounce on one leg. And he didn't want to walk across Canada. 'Oh, anyone can do that,' he'd say. He had to run it."

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

"At first, it looked pretty weird. He'd fall down quite a bit, but he never gave up. He was smart enough to know that if he kept working on something and getting advice from trainers, maybe he could figure out how to do it."

When Fox eventually hit a distance of five miles, Alward suggested they go to Prince George to compete in a prominent endurance race. "It was the biggest running race in BC at the time," he explained.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

"So we went there and he ran the entire way (27 kilometers). He wasn't fast, but he never walked a step."

"And when we were coming back, we looked at each other in the car, and I said, 'Well, it may take two or three years to get your body adapted to it."

And he looked at me and said, 'Why don't we try for next spring?' So that's what we did."

Terry Fox would succumb to cancer a year later. But not before he did the improbable - giving his all to his dream, running nearly 5400 kilometers in 143 days, and cementing himself as a full-blown Canadian legend.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

"And if he hadn't continually extended himself and if we hadn't gone to Prince George, he would have passed before he even had the chance to do the Marathon of Hope," said his friend from long ago.

Alward's not sure if he'll still be in the Okanagan next year. Both his parents are gone now, and he may move on. But listening to him yesterday, on a day when millions of dollars were once again raised worldwide through Fox's namesake annual fundraiser, was a surreal and wonderful thing.



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