Eddy Nolan, Montrealer who ran Terry Fox run every year for 43 years, dies at 67
CTV
Every year for 43 years, Montrealer Eddy Nolan took to the streets for a Terry Fox Run, usually carrying a big red and white Terry Fox flag on a pole as packs of schoolchildren jogged behind him. On Friday, he chose to end his life through medical assistance in dying.
Every year for 43 years, Montrealer Eddy Nolan took to the streets for a Terry Fox Run, usually carrying a big red and white Terry Fox flag on a pole as packs of schoolchildren jogged behind him.
This year, at age 67, Nolan decided he could not run anymore.
On Friday — the anniversary of the day Fox began his cross-country Marathon of Hope for cancer research in 1980 — the longtime marathon runner and Terry Fox advocate chose to end his life through medical assistance in dying. Complications from cancer treatment had robbed him of his quality of life, he said in an interview days before his death.
"I made 43 years, right to the end," Nolan said Tuesday in his suburban Montreal home. The April 12 anniversary seemed a fitting time, knowing children would be out that day running in tribute to Fox. "I said, 'It’s the perfect day for me.'"
Nolan was born in Pointe-St-Charles — a hardscrabble neighbourhood in south Montreal with deep Irish roots. He grew up tough, leaving home at 16 and learning to box well enough to win five Golden Glove championships.
At age 22, he decided to train for his first marathon, and he found it hard. Then one night, he turned on the news and saw coverage of Terry Fox's run. He was blown away.
While Nolan had been complaining about his own gruelling training, here was Fox running the distance of a full marathon every day on a single leg, after losing the other to cancer. Here was Fox, his eyes filled with pain and determination, half-hopping, half-running across Canada on a prosthetic leg, trying to help sick kids.
