Terry Fox

Not sure many of you know who Terry Fox is but he was/is a big name in Canada.  He was diagnosed with cancer at 18 and lost his leg from it.  While in the hospital recovering with his new prosthetic leg he saw lots of children suffering from cancer and he decided he wanted to do something to help them.  He trained for 18 months running over 5,000 miles and then started off on the Marathon of Hope, his goal was to run across Canada, he ran a marathon everyday and over time got more and more followers, he ran for 140 days straight before the cancer came back to his lungs and he was forced to stop.  He passed away at 22.  But he left a legacy behind, they have Terry Fox Runs all over Canada and the World, we even have one in Vietnam.  I walked it last year with the other teachers. 

In my class we have our own Terry Fox Run, every few weeks the students jog in class and I count all their laps and we chart how many miles the school does as a whole on a chart on our Terry Fox Bulletin Board.  Anyways the point of this post - This week we did our start up for Terry Fox, the run is November 27th.  I have been talking to the kiddos about Terry Fox again and the first grade class watched a video in their classroom.  While yesterday a little first grade boy came to class crying.  I asked him what was wrong and he was scared he was going to get cancer.  I had a chat with the whole class that they don't need to worry about that, just keep eating well, playing, and being a kid.  He then said but I don't want to get cancer when I'm older and die.  I told them that yes children rarely get cancer that usually it is adults but said that is why we go to the doctor when we are sick and doctors know more now to help.  I told the kids that my dad had/has prostrate cancer and had to have surgery but now he is all better again.  I told them they just need to keep eating healthier as they get older, keep active and exercise, don't smoke or do other bad things to your body. So I thought I handled it pretty well, I can see why they (he) were scared because Terry Fox was very young. 

Well I found out after lunch that this little boy asked to call his dad at lunch and told his dad he needed to stop smoking so he didn't die of cancer.  Ohhh, so sad.  But what is really sad is that many Vietnamese smoke and they don't seem to know all that we know in the U.S. about what it can do to you. 

Anyways poor little boy, here's hoping I don't get a parent phone call.