HOPE continues
32 years ago, Terry Fox started out on his Marathon of Hope cross-Canada trek to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Terry died in 1981. Today, millions of people in Canada and around the world carry on the tradition. Day 143
Day 48
Sept. 1: 5,373 km Thunder Bay, Ont.
“People were still lining the road saying to me, ‘Keep going, don’t give up, you can do it, you can make it, we’re all behind you.’ Well, you don’t hear that and have it go in one ear and out the other, for me anyway … There was a camera crew waiting at the three-quarter mile point to film me. I don’t think they even realized that they filmed my last mile … people were still saying, ‘You can make it all the way, Terry’. I started to think about those comments in that mile, too. Yeah, I thought, this might be my last one.”
May 29: 1,865 km Highway 2 near Moncton, N.B.
“We learned that Saint John would have nothing organized for us. I try so hard and then get let down. I am going to run right down this city’s main street. Doug is going to follow behind and honk. We will be rebels, we will stir up noise. People will know Terry Fox ran out of his way to Saint John for a reason!”
N.L.
Day 1
P.E.I.
Terry’s Run
Terry Fox dips his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean and sets out on his Marathon of Hope.
N.B.
QUEBEC
Day 108
N.S.
ONTARIO
July 28: 4,153 km Gravenhurst, Ont.
Between June 11 and June 15: 2,592 km Highway 20 (en route to Quebec City)
Fox celebrated his 22nd birthday along with 2,000 other people. One of his gifts was a new artificial limb.
July 28, 1958 Terrance Stanley Fox is born in Winnipeg, Man.
April 12, 1980 St. John’s, N.L.
“I am tired and weary because people are continually forcing me off the road. I was actually honked off once. People are passing from behind me on this narrow road. It is so frustrating.”
1976
1979
April 12, 1980
Sept. 18, 1980
Feb. 1, 1981
Fox graduates from high school with honours. Excels in basketball, soccer and rugby. Enrols in kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Starts training for his run across Canada.
Starts his cross-Canada trek in St. John’s, N.L., by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean.
Becomes the youngest Companion of the Order of Canada.
Fox’s dream comes true — the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope fund totaled $24.17 M.
1960s
1970s
1980
1981
March 2, 1977
Sept. 1, 1980
Moves to Port Coquitlam, B.C., with his family — older brother Fred, younger brother and sister Darrell and Judith, mother Betty and father Rolly.
Diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in his right leg. His leg is amputated 15 cm above the knee. After months of chemotherapy, and seeing more than enough people struggle with cancer, Fox decides to run across Canada to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. His goal is set at $1 from every Canadian.
Terry Fox ran for 143 days, 5,373 km through Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. He was forced to abandon his course just northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. Cancer had spread to his lungs.
15cm
1966
Fox in Toronto.
Sept. 2, 1980 Isadore Sharp, chairman and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, telegrams the Fox family with a commitment to organize a yearly fundraising run. He writes, “You started it. We will not rest until your dream to find a cure for cancer is realized.”
June 28, 1981 Fox dies in Royal Columbian Hospital, just one month before his 23rd birthday.