If you see him coming, be prepared to reach deep.
Barrie-area residents have been making generous donations to the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research for decades, in no small part thanks to the efforts of Will Dwyer.
The feisty 94-year old, and Second World War veteran, has been bringing in the bucks for the foundation for 39 years.
This year, he reached a milestone: $1 million raised.
And he isn’t done yet.
Dwyer was inspired by Terry Fox’s dedication during what the young man dubbed his Marathon of Hope in 1980.
Fox was 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and was forced to have his right leg amputated above the knee in 1977.
But he found the strength to make a difference for other cancer patients and began his cross-Canada journey on April 12, 1980 from St. John’s, NL, running almost 42 kilometres every single day for 143 days.
Eventually, cancer would take him from a grateful nation on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.
But folks like Dwyer have never forgotten him and thanks to his help, and from thousands of other people, more than $750 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name.
“I like to help people because there’s too many people out there with cancer,” Dwyer says from his room at the Chartwell Whispering Pines Retirement Residence in Barrie.
Dwyer remains in treatment for prostate cancer, but isn’t one to complain.
“I’ve met a lot of people who’ve already had cancer and they’re coming along pretty well, including myself,” he says. “Everything is OK right now. It’s not moving up or anything and it’s treatable.”
Dwyer had seven children, two of whom succumbed to cancer, as did his mother, who passed away at 51 when he was still overseas.
He eventually spent 25 years in the military.
“I was in the British army because I’m from God’s country: Newfoundland,” he says with a grin, adding that at the time, the province was not yet part of the Dominion of Canada (it joined in 1949).
He would be part of the 166th Newfoundland Field Regiment and serve in Europe.
Some of what he witnessed during wartime would later encourage him to help others.
“We had good times and bad times,” Dwyer says. “I saw what happened when I was in Italy and how people had a rough time. A lot of people were getting killed: too many, too many.”
As for getting to that magic number of $1 million raised for the Terry Fox Foundation, he says there’s not much magic involved.
(This reporter’s wallet is 50 bucks lighter after our encounter.)
“I just put my hand out,” Dwyer says. “I meet a lot of people and they usually make a donation because they know it’s going towards cancer research. I have a lot of people contribute year after year.”
Back in the day, when he was a little more mobile, he’d make his way around on his own gathering his donations. (He also collects for the Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund.)
“Sometimes I’ve been out on my own and I’ve got a cane, so if I’m not going up the steps I’ll reach for the cane and knock on the door and they come out,” he says. "(These days) I’m not walking so well, so I get my son Robert to give me a little push.”
Robert says people are ready to fork over the cash when they see his dad.
“If he hasn’t been able to get out of the car, as soon as I introduce myself and give them a card with Will’s picture on it, they say ‘I’ll go get my cheque book. Where is he? I’ll come to him’,” he says.
“The biggest donation he’s gotten is $1,500 from one resident,” Robert adds. “We’ve had lots of $1,000 donations from businesses, especially trying to get him to the million-dollar mark, but most of them are all $10, $20, $25, $50. Everything adds up.
“For as long as he’s been doing this, he’s had repetitive customers. He might not know the address, but he knows the neighbourhood and the house.”
Robert, who is an acting platoon chief with the Canadian Forces Base Borden Fire Department, had some help getting his dad to that $1-million mark.
“The firefighters in Borden came on board two months ago to help Will get to the mill,” he says, referring to fundraising efforts of his father. “I’ve got two guys on my shift who came up with this idea that they were going to walk 20 kilometres in full bunker gear and they did it, from the Borden Legacy Monument (at the north gates) to the Barrie cenotaph.”
For the uninitiated, that’s 70 pounds of gear: a full-on, ready-to-head-into-a-house-on-
All the guys on 'A' crew crew participated, as did others, in the walk for a total of 24 of them and they raised more than $40,000.
It’s that kind of community effort that has helped Will do the amazing fundraising that he does.
That dedication will continue on Sunday during the annual Terry Fox Run fundraiser in Barrie, which takes place at Centennial Park between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
It’s bicycle, wheelchair, stroller and rollerblade accessible and is also dog friendly, but pooches must be on a leash.
Dwyer isn’t ready to end his own nearly four-decades-long fundraising efforts, however.
“No, I’m not going to stop. No way.”
