THUNDER BAY — The Fellow in Yellow is his own greatest hero and he hopes to inspire that attitude in others.
Trevor Redmond nearly lost his leg after he was struck by a car at 15.
Now, he is running across the country and back.
“Become your own greatest hero,” said Redmond, who stopped at the Terry Fox monument in Thunder Bay on Monday.
Redmond had run roughly 6,773 kilometres as of Sunday, always wearing yellow, since setting out from Halifax, N.S., raising over $48,400 since preparing for the trip in October 2023.
“This is the movement for movement. The more we move, the more we move others,” said Redmond.
It was the third time Redmond had been to the monument after walking 11,421 kilometres and biking 14,632 kilometres for two separate nationwide trips, closing in on 33,000 kilometres altogether.
As Terry Fox was once quoted, “somewhere the hurting must stop,” said Redmond.
“But, sometimes we have to go through great pains for that hurting to stop. And when I think about people that are struggling with physical trauma and emotional trauma, it does require exercise and through that exercise, it does take courage and especially takes encouragement," he added.
For Redmond, the greatest influence on his life was the doctor who got him out of his wheelchair and to stand on crutches.
“Now, I don’t know when I gave up the crutches and I don’t know when I gave up the cane, but I will never forget when I gave up that wheelchair,” said Redmond.
As teenager, Redmond said he went through around 12 surgeries, a month and a half in the hospital and a year and a half looking at specialists.
The thought of becoming an amputee left him unsure how to navigate going forward.
However, the accomplishments of Terry Fox and his friend Rick Hansen, who both became amputees made him consider where he would be if he lost the use of his limbs, said Redmond, which stuck with him.
He said his goal is to really encourage people to become courageous about their health at the personal level and the political level.
“They can be courageous as well and really put in the work and the investment we need towards our health care system,” said Redmond.
After running through Canada last year and talking about healthcare, he said it seemed to be the predominant thing that needed more investment was mental health services.
“Boy, if I could raise half $1 million to put back into the healthcare system, that’d be fantastic. If I could double the charity support that a Dollar A Day has received, it’d be fantastic, and that’d be up to $1.5 million,” said Redmond.
He added that he doesn’t want this to end and wants it to keep going, continuing to Vancouver Island and back to Halifax.
“If I can’t reach people with my feet, I want to reach them with my words,” said Redmond.
Redmond encourages people to go in, look at and donate on his website, as well as through email and also his GoFundMe page.
“If people do donate $10 towards this journey, I will give them a kilometre of the journey. And if you want to look at some of those names there right now, they’re stretching up to over 4800 people’s names are on that site. You can own the kilometre,” said Redmond.
