Who was Terry Fox?

Terrance Stanley Fox was a young Canadian athlete who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma at age 18 in 1977 and then ran across Canada to raise money for cancer research, calling his run the Marathon of Hope. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on July 28, 1958, raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, and was studying kinesiology at Simon Fraser University when he was diagnosed.

Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 and began running west, averaging a marathon a day (about 42 kilometres) on a prosthetic leg. He passed through every Atlantic province, Quebec, and Ontario, raising funds at school and city stops along the way. By the time he reached Toronto on July 11, 1980, he had drawn the attention of the country, and a Canadian Cancer Society fundraising campaign called the Terry Fox Run Day was beginning to take shape.

On September 1, 1980, after running 5,373 kilometres in 143 days, Fox was forced to stop near Thunder Bay, Ontario when the cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981 at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, British Columbia at the age of 22. The Marathon of Hope had raised $24.17 million, equivalent to one dollar from every Canadian.

The annual Terry Fox Run, held every September on Fox's terms (no winners, no set distances, no corporate sponsors taking the lead), has become Canada's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. As of 2023 the Terry Fox Foundation has raised more than $850 million worldwide. Fox was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1980, the youngest recipient ever, and Canada's tallest mountain, Mount Terry Fox in British Columbia, was renamed in his honour in 1981. He appears on the Canadian one-dollar coin (2005), the Heritage Minute series, and the federal study guide Discover Canada.