Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated above the knee in 1977.
While in the hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope. It was a journey that Canadians would never forget.
After 18 months and running over 5,000 km to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980, with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran close to 42 km a day through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, Québec and Ontario.
On September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 km, Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 198,1 at the age of 22.
To date, over $600 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held in over 9,000 communities across Canada and over 25 countries around the world.
