Terry Fox's Econoline van restored for cross-Canada tour

The 1980 Econoline Ford van that served as Terry Fox's home — and the movable headquarters for his Marathon of Hope — has been restored for a cross-Canada tour.

The van that crept along the roadways of eastern Canada behind Fox for 143 days was shown off at Ford's Canadian headquarters in Oakville, Ont., on Thursday for the first time since it was found and acquired by the Terry Fox Foundation.

The foundation plans to use the newly restored van to once again share Fox's goal of raising funds to fight cancer with a cross-Canada tour starting May 25 in St. John's.

During the unveiling at the Oakville plant, Darrell Fox, Terry's brother, said the van brought back a lot of memories. 

Pointing to the bedding inside the van, he reminisced about how Terry had prepared himself every day for another gruelling run. 

"It's quite emotional, to know that this is where Terry slept … this is where he prepared every day for the Marathon of Hope. And I'm just coming to grips with what we experienced this morning," he told CBC News.

Heavy-metal band used van for touring

The spot in northern Ontario where Fox was forced to end his Marathon of Hope in September 1980 was marked by a statue of the runner on the Trans-Canada Highway, but the support van was soon forgotten. 

The van's whereabouts remained unknown to the family until Vancouver author Douglas Coupland was approached at a party in North Vancouver by somebody who had read his 25th anniversary book about the Marathon of Hope. The guest told Coupland the van was in Vancouver.

"So Doug gave me a phone call later that day, and the next day we were out on a mission to find the Marathon of Hope van," Fox, the national director of the Terry Fox Foundation, told CBC Radio on Friday morning.

Originally the van had been loaned to Terry Fox by the Ford Motor Co., and after his death it was sold to a family.

The van was eventually driven to British Columbia, where a heavy-metal rock band from East Vancouver used it for years to tour across North America.

Darrell Fox said he'll never forget the day in the fall of 2006 when he and Coupland rediscovered the rusted Econoline parked on a side street in East Vancouver.

"As soon as I turned the corner … I knew right away what I was looking at," he said.

Fight against cancer inspired Fox to run

In 1977, Terry Fox's right leg was amputated above his knee after he was diagnosed at age 18 with bone cancer.

On April 12, 1980, Fox dipped his artificial foot in the Atlantic Ocean off St. John's, and began his run to raise money for cancer research.

He ran about 42 kilometres each day, in freezing rain, high winds, even snow, with the now iconic van following him on the highway.

But on Sept. 1, chest pains and breathing problems forced him to stop running at a spot along the Trans-Canada Highway northeast of Thunder Bay.

After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, he announced he would have to postpone the rest of the run, saying, "I'm gonna do my very best. I'll fight, I promise I won't give up."

In a B.C. hospital doctors discovered the source of his chest pains: cancer had spread to his lungs.

In the months that followed, donations kept coming, and $24.17 million was raised, surpassing his initial goal.

Since that time, a further $400 million has been raised in his name.

Fox died on June 28, 1981, but not before becoming the youngest person ever to be awarded the Order of Canada.