Introducing our own Terry Fox

February 13, 2012

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Marine Drive is a 3-kilometre-long boulevard in South Mumbai in the city of Mumbai. It is a ‘C’-shaped six-lane concrete road along the coast, which is a natural bay. People of all stripes gather here to soak up the ocean views, jog, catch up with friends, or simply enjoy a solitary stroll.

The place this Sunday unlike other days was posing a different sight. The stretch was filled with students representing their schools, parents and people wearing Yellow, White and Green T-shirts.

The reason being today was 5th February 2012, The Terry Fox Run.

VV is one of the oldest members of the Terry Fox India Committee and has been associated with the forum for the last 14 years. But this year since she had to be in Patna for the World Cancer Day FOM Meet, Ayeshah and I took over managing FOM’s presence at the Run. As every year this year also we had a good representation from Friends of Max supporting the cause and the run. And like every year we and the FOM were eager and helpful volunteers taking care of the little patients from Tata hospital who came to attend the event.

This year also had something different in store……

We had our own Terry Fox, newly discovered Friend of Max; this year present at the event to support the cause. Mr. Anthony Lobo, who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at the age of 12 and in the course of medication, had to amputate his leg.

This was the first time that Mr. Lobo has attended the Terry Fox Run, even though he had heard about the Run, he never participated in one.

How did he come to know about the Friends of Max and attended the run or the other way round how did we come to know about him……here lies a story proving how small the world is….

It was our beloved FOM, Dr Jude Vaz through whom it all happened. Mr. Lobo visited the Holy family Hospital (Where Dr Jude is Head of Pathology) to donate blood and as a part of the formality he was supposed to fill some forms. One point mentioned there was if the person had any history of cancer and Mr. Lobo ticked it. This was immediately brought to Dr Jude’s notice that resulted in his meeting the person and Dr. Jude found out that he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma when he was 12 and had to amputate his leg and after that there are no signs of the disease.

Dr Jude shared his story with him and how he himself is a cancer (CML) survivor/warrior and told him about The Max Foundation and Friends of Max. He told Mr. Lobo who Terry Fox was and that Mr. Lobo had the same cancer which Terry had, also told him about the Terry Fox Run which was going to be held on 5th Feb 2012 and requested him to be a part of the run as it would be a very good experience for him and also for the group to meet someone like Mr. Anthony Lobo who fought with the cancer at an very early age and stood strong and confident.