A Sudbury man who accompanied Terry Fox across Northern Ontario during his Marathon of Hope passed away Saturday at Extendicare York at the age of 90.
Lou Fine gave an interview to Sudbury.com at the city's Terry Fox Run in September 2012. He was the Northern Ontario district director of the Canadian Cancer Society in 1980, during Fox's Marathon of Hope.
Fox, who had lost a leg to a type of cancer called osteosarcoma, began his trek in St. John's, Nfld. in April of that year, and ran the equivalent of a full marathon every day. He hoped to raise one dollar for each of Canada's 24 million people.
“When Terry came along in 1980, all the directors – there were nine of us — had to take him through their territory,” Fine told Sudbury.com in 2012.
“I was the one who had him last. I had 1,000 or 1,200 miles to go with him. I spent the last seven weeks with him on the highway.”
Fox was an “entirely normal” young man who “ate like a horse,” he said. He was very disciplined about his running, and was in bed by 8 p.m. every night, Fine said.
Fine was with Fox when he was forced to end his run outside of Thunder Bay on Sept. 1, 1980. The cancer had spread to his lungs.
“He cried like a baby,” he said.
Nine months later, Fox died of cancer at the age of 22, but Fine said his dream lives on in all those who participate in Terry Fox runs every year.
One the 25th anniversary of Fox's trek, Fine was honoured by the young man's family, who said he was his “father on the highway.”
Fine told Sudbury.com that raising funds for medical research is a cause near and dear to his heart. He lost two daughters as toddlers in the 1950s to a rare brain disease.
Nobody knew how to treat the condition because nobody had ever done any research on it, he said.
Fine was a three-time cancer survivor himself. He said as far as he's concerned, if someone can live for 20 years after they've developed cancer, there is a cure for the disease for many people.
He is survived by his son James Fine (Marisa) and daughter Linda Dufour, and predeceased by his wife Dorothy Fine in 2003, as well as daughters Ruth and Cindy.
At Fine’s request, there will be no visitation or service. Cremation at the Park Lawn Crematorium. Donations to the Canadian Association for Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases would be appreciated. Arrangements entrusted to the Lougheed Funeral Home.