Terry Fox's legacy will live on in B.C. museum collection

As It Happens10:05Terry Fox’s legacy will live on in new museum collection

When Terry Fox's cancer spread to his lungs, bringing his Marathon of Hope to a sudden and tragic end, he said it was the outpouring of support from Canadians that kept him going.

"I always read every letter that I get," Fox said in an emotional interview with then-As It Happens host Barbara Frum in December 1980, three months after he stopped his cross-country trek, and six months before he died.

"The kinds of things that people say to encourage me and support me really help me out psychologically."

Fox received hundreds of thousands of messages from Canadians during and after his famous run. Now those letters — as well as a huge trove of memorabilia from Fox's life — will have a permanent home at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria. 

It's a tremendous relief to Darrell Fox, who has dedicated much of his life to preserving his brother's legacy, and hopes the collection will allow Terry's story to live on after those who knew him are no longer around to tell it.

"We're all getting older," Darrell told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I was someone who witnessed the Marathon of Hope. How is that story going to be shared? And I know and I've seen how the artifacts can communicate and share a story."

'That stinky Ford van'

Terry was just 22 years old when he embarked on the Marathon of Hope to raise money for cancer research. 

With one leg amputated from cancer, the Port Coquitlam, B.C., athlete set off from St. John's, N.L., running the equivalent of a marathon a day on a prosthetic leg with the goal of making it all the way home to the west coast.

By the time he hit Ontario, he'd captured the country's attention and gained a massive following. But his cancer spread to his lungs, and he was forced to cut the journey short in Thunder Bay, Ont., 143 days and 5,373 kilometres in. He died nine months later. 

His story continues to inspire people to raise money for cancer charities through annual Terry Fox Runs around the world.

Darrell joined Terry on the Marathon of Hope, following along with Terry's friend Doug Alward in the now iconic Econoline camper van that served as their base of operations.

"That van was Terry's Marathon of Hope home," Darrell said. "That was his office. That's where he slept most nights."

The Fox family didn't own the van back then. It was on loan from Ford Motor Co., and was returned after the marathon ended, and later sold. 

Decades later, the family tracked it down and had it restored. After touring the country, it's now on display outside the Royal B.C. Museum, and will be part of its permanent collection.

"[I have] many memories from that stinky Ford van," Darrell said with a laugh. "I mean, three young men, one of them running a marathon every day?"

But not to worry, he says. "We left the odour back in 1980."

The story of a single sock

The collection will also include Terry's running shoes, Marathon of Hope T-shirt, personal journals, prosthetic leg — and even the sock he wore over it.

"He never took it off, you know, throughout the Marathon of Hope," Darrell said. "Even post-marathon, he kept that sock on issue because he thought there was a chance that he could get out there and finish the run.

"It was only in late December of 1980, when I think he accepted and recognized his fate, that he took the sock off and buried it in the back of his sock drawer because mom was working on him all the time, 'I want to wash this sock. Get it off!'"

Their mother, Betty Fox, came across the sock after Terry had died, Darrell said.

"She recognized the significance of it, decided this thing is going to stick around forever because it can share a story."

For years, Terry's personal effects have been kept in a storage locker in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, under the stewardship of the Terry Fox Centre, of which Darrell is a volunteer board member.

The items have been trotted out over the years for various exhibits, Darrell says, but it's been a challenge to find them a permanent home where they can be adequately preserved in the long run.

"For 44 years, Terry Fox has been an inspiration to Canadians and we are thrilled to be entrusted with the stewardship of this important collection," Tracey Drake, CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum, said in a press release.

Darrell says the Terry Fox Centre is working with the museum to ensure the items are not just preserved, but also displayed.

"It's no good in a box," he said. "We know how the collection can inspire and motivate people."

Especially, he says, those letters from Canadians. They're still counting how many there are, he says, but he estimates it's upwards of 300,000. 

"It just shows how Terry touched people back in 1980," he said. "This is obviously pre-cellphones and email, and they needed to express their thoughts about Terry —  and they did so in a really big way."