In many ways, Bill Vigars finished the Marathon of Hope that cancer prevented Terry Fox from completing.
At the very least, he helped keep Terry’s dream going for 44 years after it ended near Thunder Bay in 1980 when it was learned the cancer that had stolen Fox’s leg had returned and spread to his lungs.
Vigars has said it was the worst day of his life. But when Vigars finally caught up to Terry in his room at the hospital, he made him a promise.
“I will make sure you live forever,” he vowed.
True to his word, Vigars not only ensured the Marathon of Hope didn’t end with Terry’s death in 1981, he helped it grow into an international movement.
Sadly, Vigars’ own amazing marathon to make sure no one ever forgot Terry has also come to an end. At 78, the iconic publicist and organizer of the Marathon of Hope, who went on to work in film and fundraising, died of heart failure in Vancouver on Wednesday.
Actress Joely Collins was at his bedside with Vigars’s family. The remaining cast of Night Heat, like actor Scott Hylands, kept vigil. They all knew Bill was always there for all of them, whether it be on filmsets where Vigars was the publicist or when they needed assistance in their own lives.
He always came through.
Fittingly, Vigars died in the same hospital where Terry’s life ended some 43 years earlier.
His death came as a shock, even though people realized Bill had been struggling with health for a few months. But he was such a positive guy, you just didn’t believe anything would ever affect him. He was strong, uplifting and courageous.
He saw things as glass half full and was proud of his association with Terry Fox and his family, who are also a huge part ensuring Terry’s legacy and raising almost $1 billion for cancer research.
When Bill came upon these three young men in a van – Terry, his brother Darrell and his childhood pal Doug Alward – things were not rosy. The start was rough and the attention was limited. Many times, people were yelling at Terry to get off the rode because he was in the way.
But Vigars knew how big the Marathon of Hope could be.
“I could tell by the way people reacted him,” he told me. “In those days, there were one dollar bills and they would be so scrunched up because the people were gripping them with their emotion of seeing this kind man running on one leg – before throwing the dollar of support in the bucket.”
Ontario, Bill thought, would be the key to his run – and was he ever right.
“When Terry saw those OPP cars in the distance at the border of Quebec, he understood what was about to happen,” Bill told me.
From Ottawa to Toronto to the north, Terry was the biggest star of 1980. And that star never dimmed.
Vigars was sent out there by the Canadian Cancer Society to offer a little help and it ended up defining his life.
“Bill Vigars wasn’t a big man but he was always larger than life,” writer Ian Harvey said in tribute. “It will be impossible to imagine life without him, without his cryptic messages, phone calls and conversations, and those who know and loved him are devastated.”
Harvey, a beloved member of the Toronto Sun family himself having worked as a reporter for decades, was a friend for 40 years. In 2022, he finally convinced Vigars to retrace the steps of the Marathon of Hope with a view to writing a memoir – which ended up being called Terry and Me – with Harvey doing the ghostwriting and getting across Vigars’ amazing words.
“Everything I did prior to meeting Terry set me up for the Marathon of Hope, and everything I’ve done since has been because of Terry,” said Vigars.
He worked with greats like David Foster and Phil Collins, but it was always about Terry Fox for Bill.
“It was like God put us together,” Bill once told me. “Whenever I go to Terry’s grave I talk to him.”
He was always alive to Bill. Now they are together again.
I met him in 1988 and have been friends with him ever since. He was a wise person. Kind. Strategic. Justice driven. Humble.
He’s going to be missed. But the results he left behind will remain.
“His wife Sherry, his kids Patrick and Kerry Anne obviously are feeling this loss more than most,” said Harvey. “Bill died after a struggle with heart disease over the summer culminating in a sudden turn for the worse over the last week. His big heart just faded away and he left us peacefully Wednesday.”
Bill Vigars is together again with Terry now – and he kept his promise.