He is now an answer to a trivia question but twenty five years ago Steve Fonyo, who is now 44, was a household word and hero in Our Home And Native Land.
Mr. Fonyo, a cancer survivor who had lost a leg to the terrible disease, picked up where Terry Fox left off and ran literally into the Pacific Ocean raising 13,000,000.00 dollars during his 1984 cross Canada one man marathon. For those efforts he received the Order of Canada.
Now they have taken it away.
Life has not been kind to Mr. Fonyo and Mr. Fonyo has not been kind to life. He has multiple convictions for theft and drinking while driving and assault and has turned out to be a bit of an a**hole if you ask me.
But I agree with his former boss, Satnam Singh Sidhu, at Trans Canada Auto & Transmission Services in Surrey, British Columbia who Andrea Woo quotes in her Vancouver Sun story this day: "They gave him the Order of Canada based on his accomplishments and they're still there," said Sidhu. "It's not like he didn't do it, or lied about it. He finished his marathon and was an inspiration to a lot of people."
He was stripped of his Order of Canada, recieved when he was 18 on November 22, 1985, on December 10 of last year.
WFDS
I remember him and am sorry his character has changed since he raised money for cancer. I know cancer treatments and the cancer itself often causes character change...for one thing a disease like that can be like an abuse and treatments depending on what they are, can cause brain functioning changes. I don't know if these apply in this case...just saying that you never hear about that part of cancer and it's treatment. Maybe it applies here?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sidhu. His accomplishment was real. You can't lose medals for bad conduct later anywhere else can you?
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