Two years ago this month, Kevin Ballard stood at the start line of the Terry Fox Hometown Run, scanning the crowd of thousands that had shown up to continue the Port Coquitlam hero's legacy.
But while he was aware of the event's goals and Terry's story — Ballard had graduated from the school that bears his name — he was absorbed in his own thoughts, what he called "a self-pity party."
He had good reason.
Only days before the 2014 Hometown Run, Ballard, then 29, was given a death sentence.
He and his wife, Nikki, were at the BC Cancer Clinic in Surrey when the oncologist broke the news Ballard had aggressive brain cancer — Stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme — and he had just 18 months to live.
The couple went into shock.
No doctor had told them the diagnosis before or after an operation in August at Royal Columbian Hospital. In fact, they were told the opposite: that the tumour the size of a golf ball on the left side of his brain was benign and, as a result, the surgery was bumped several times between June and August. After it was done, he had felt fine and recovery was much easier than anticipated.
But that was then.
Now, they were scrambling to save his life.
Ballard texted his family. "We need to talk," he typed.
Organizing the finances was just one challenge, said Nikki, who had to go on stress leave from work. Ballard's brothers renovated their parents' basement so the couple could move in. There, she would take care of him while he underwent rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.
And then, a glimmer of hope.
Despite the oncologist's initial prediction, Ballard's third biopsy showed a miraculous change, although it didn't rescind the death sentence.
Later in the fall of 2014, the cancer was downgraded to Stage 3 oligodendroglioma, meaning he had three or four more years to live.
Ballard believes his faith and positive thinking turned the prognosis around at the start of his recovery.
"I just couldn't accept there was a purpose," he told The Tri-City News. "There was a reason, I just didn't know what it was…. I asked why. I just really got a sense of peace that God isn't done with me yet. I wasn't supposed to be gone in 18 months."
"Science doesn't always have the answers," he said.
By January 2015, after numerous trips across the Port Mann bridge to get to the Surrey cancer clinic, Ballard hit bottom. His hair had fallen out. He was depressed. He felt like it was getting worse.
"I just didn't know how I could live if it's all for nothing," he remembered thinking.
But by the spring, the oncologist declared him fit enough to allow the couple to take a short domestic trip.
In Montreal, they happened to pick up a brochure from the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, which had opened a new exhibit. The subject? "Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada."
There, they saw Terry's prosthetic leg, the jug of the water he collected from the Atlantic Ocean when he launched the Marathon of Hope. At the end was a wall of Post-it notes from visitors who wrote their thoughts about how Terry had affected their lives.
"We pretty much cried through the whole exhibit," Nikki said.
In Thunder Bay, on their way home for a follow-up doctor's appointment, they stopped at the Terry Fox monument to pay tribute again to PoCo hero.
They quietly told themselves, "Whatever happens, happens."
Three months later, the pair got the news they were desperate to hear: Ballard was in clinical remission.
For the past year, he has had MRIs every six months and has gained full-time employment at a Langley warehouse. And remarkably, this month, he took part in a triathlon in Stanley Park — the place where Fox was set to finish his Marathon of Hope.
Ballard said he has never been so healthy and, on Sunday, Sept. 18, as he did last year, he'll be sporting his red Terry's Team T-shirt — worn by cancer survivors — to participate in the Terry Fox Run.
He shakes his head when thinking about the past two years. "I still don't know why I was given more time," he said, "but I feel like every day is a gift."
"It has changed our entire life," Nikki added. "I wouldn't want to go through it again and wouldn't wish it on anyone but we've had the best years we have ever had. We appreciate life… It's a crazy thing to say but it's been a blessing."
Ballard nodded. "It's the moments. I don't know how long I have but I appreciate everything so much more. I appreciate nature. It's amazing how beautiful this area is. I go out on the trails and I see things in a whole new light."
At that moment, Ballard's eyes drift and he sees a black bear walking across the street. "Just awesome."
jwarren@tricitynews.com
Part 3: Terry Fox's siblings, in the The Tri-City News on Friday.
