YOU’RE NEVER TOO YOUNG TO CREATE A LEGACY: REMEMBERING YUSUF HIRJI
Yusuf was 16 when he was diagnosed with the same cancer as Terry Fox.
“In life, things do happen. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re bad. You can make the best of it and that’s all that you can do. That’s in your control … What can I do that I’ll always remember?” – Yusuf Hirji
Yusuf was a typical kid in Grade 11. His life revolved around family, friends, school, and especially sports. He was elite soccer player with the skills and ambition to play professionally. When his leg started to hurt, he thought it was a pulled hamstring. It was osteosarcoma.
From the beginning, Yusuf channelled Terry’s optimism and courage. He became the 2014 High School Run Ambassador for the Terry Fox Foundation. He visited schools and brought Terry’s message of hope to thousands of students. He participated in a pilot project at Sick Kids Hospital to “test drive” a first-in-Canada backpack allowing him to receive chemotherapy at home without having to spend days in the hospital.
The only limit is the one you set for yourself.
Yusuf’s mantra. He believed it so strongly, he had it tattooed on his arm.
When they learned he only had about six months of quality time left, Yusuf’s mom Shyrin said, “What are we going to do?” Yusuf’s answer? Everything!
He went skydiving. He visited Barcelona, Munich (for Octoberfest!), and England to see his beloved Manchester United beat archrivals Liverpool. He got right up to the stage at a music festival where concert-goers lifted him up to crowd surf – in his wheelchair!
Together with his family and his care team, he did everything possible to get better. But his cancer didn’t respond as hoped and Yusuf died at the tender age of 19.
Today, Yusuf’s light and his legacy live on in an annual youth soccer tournament in his hometown and in his family’s continued support of the Terry Fox Foundation.
To keep touching people in a way that’s so meaningful, especially for someone who is so young? It’s remarkable. It’s a meaningful legacy.
Shyrin Hirji, Yusuf’s mom
NEW HEIGHTS: HOW AN OSTEOSARCOMA DIAGNOSIS CHANGED SARAH MCIVOR’S LIFE
We’ve come a long way since Terry was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1977. Back then, the standard treatment for osteosarcoma was amputation and chemotherapy. But even with aggressive treatment, the prognosis was bleak with a survival rate of less than 5%.
Which brings us to Sarah.
There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel grateful or understand the true – TRUE – concept of cancer research and fighting for other people.
– Sarah McIvor
Like Terry, Sarah was a freshman in university when she started having pain in her lower back and knee. And like Terry, she assumed it was a sports injury. It wasn’t. It was osteosarcoma: the same cancer, in the same part of her leg, as Terry.
Sarah’s treatment was long and complex, and included limb-salvage surgery with endoprosthetic reconstruction. Instead of amputating her leg and giving her an artificial one, they built a prosthetic limb inside her real leg. Over the years, she’s needed multiple revisions to those surgeries, but she still has her leg and she’s been in remission for more than 20 years!
Terry dreamed big. My life is the result of that dream.
Sarah McIvor
Last year, Sarah decided to channel her inner Terry Fox and put her own determination and courage to the test. She signed up for the Mount Terry Fox Trek in support of cancer research.
Despite having a completely rebuilt femur and knee, she made it to the summit!
INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION OF CANCER RESEARCH: BETTER DETECTION METHODS FOR OSTEOSARCOMA
Terry Fox died of bone cancer (osteosarcoma) that spread to his lungs. Sadly, research hasn’t led to the breakthroughs in sarcomas we’ve seen with some other cancers. At least, not yet! But if Terry was diagnosed today, he likely wouldn’t lose his leg right away and he might even experience an extended remission. That’s because of supporters like you and researchers like Dr. Joanna Przybyl.
“Where do my donations go?” We get this question a lot. And we LOVE answering it because your gifts support the very best cancer researchers in this country through the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI)! TFRI invests your donations across Canada through its highly-competitive grants and awards programs.
As a Terry Fox Legacy Circle member and donor, your gift supports “big risk, big reward” research projects with the potential to save and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families.
We’d like you to meet Dr. Joanna Przybyl, a Terry Fox New Investigator leading a project to develop a “liquid biopsy” test for osteosarcoma.
“Liquid biopsy is already transforming clinical care with more precise, more personalized treatments. And as we look to the future, we’ll be able to use this technology with other types of sarcomas and cancer,” says Dr. Przybyl.
If you’re a patient, , it would be as quick as a blood test. Even if your tumour is in a hard-to-reach part of the body, your blood carries its genetic signature. Identifying those markers could help determine the best treatment for your cancer.
If you’re a researcher,the test could identify biomarkers unique to that specific cancer. Those markers could then be used to classify tumours into subtypes and even predict potential outcomes from different treatments.
If you’re an oncologist,
the test could give you an accurate, non-invasive way to match your patient to the best treatment for their tumour type. This could also spare patients from the harsh side-effects of therapies that are unlikely to be effective.
Your support makes it possible for TFRI to fund the Terry Fox New Investigator Awards for promising new researchers exploring bold ideas like liquid biopsies.
