Terry Fox remembered on 35th anniversary of his death
Mike Laanela | CBC News | Posted: June 28, 2016 4:17 PM | Last Updated: June 29, 2016
Looking back at the young man who took on the impossible and inspired a nation
There was little fanfare when 21-year-old Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean near St. John's Newfoundland on April 12, 1980, to begin his Marathon of Hope.
Today, on the 35th anniversary of his death, the Canadian icon's legacy lives on.
As Canadians remember the young man who took on the impossible and inspired a nation, here's a look back at that legacy in photos.
The B.C. teen's initial goal was to run across the country and raise $1 million for cancer research, but as the run progressed his goal grew to raising $1 from each of Canada's 24 million people.
Fox was initially frustrated by the lack of support for his run, but by the time he crossed into Ontario, escorted by police, he was met by a brass band and thousands of residents who lined the streets to cheer him.
Fox ran with a hop-step on his good leg to let the springs on his artificial leg reset, creating his iconic gait.
At a rally at Toronto City Hall with parents Betty, left and Rolly Fox on July 11, he was presented with an NHL all-star jersey by Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Despite suffering from shin splints, an inflamed knee, cysts on his stump and dizzy spells, Fox ran the equivalent of one marathon a day for more than four months, sleeping many nights in the van driven by his brother Darrell.
After 143 days of running covering 5,373 kilometres, Fox was forced to quit his run when he learned cancer had spread to his lungs. He is shown here in hospital watching a nationally televised telethon on Sept. 9, 1980, which raised $10.5 million in five hours.
Fox became the youngest Canadian to receive the Order of Canada, which he received from Gov.-Gen. Edward Schreyer on Sept. 19, 1980. He also won the Lou Marsh Award as the sportsman of the year.
Nine months after he was forced to end his run, Fox died of cancer at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C., on June 28, 1981. His funeral was broadcast on national television.
The first Terry Fox Run was organized in September 1981 by the Fox family and Isadore Sharp, the founder of the Four Seasons Hotel chain and one of Fox's earliest corporate supporters. The run was initially opposed by the Cancer Society, but has since spread around the world, raising more than $600 million for cancer research.
A monument erected at the spot in Thunder Bay where Fox was forced to end his cross-country trek is still a popular stop for tourists.
The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Terry Fox, which was commissioned in 1983, was one of many tributes to Fox. Others include more than 30 streets, dozens of schools and buildings, statues, fitness trails, and a mountain and provincial park in B.C.
In 2011, artist Douglas Coupland, who became a close friend of the Fox family, created a memorial to Terry outside BC Place in Vancouver, showing him running west toward his goal of the Pacific Ocean.
'It occurs very rarely in the life of a nation that the courageous spirit of one person unites all people in the celebration of his life and in the mourning of his death,' said Pierre Trudeau, who was then prime minister.