(TerryFox.org)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

"It is a beautiful, quiet, peaceful country"

Sunday marks 40 years since Marathon of Hope began

Apr 12, 2020 | 11:17 AM

Day 15: 542 km – South Brook Junction, Newfoundland

“Today we got up at 4:00 am. As usual, it was tough. If I died, I would die happy because I was doing what I wanted to do. How many people could say that? I went out and did fifteen push-ups in the road and took off. I want to set an example that will never be forgotten.” -Terry Fox’s journal excerpt

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Forty years ago — on April 12, 1980 — a Canadian icon dipped his foot into Atlantic waters on the shores near St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope ultimately lasted 143 days which saw him run 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles) before being forced to stop outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

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“I’m gonna do my very best. I’ll fight. I promise I won’t give up,” he said at a press conference on September 1 in Thunder Bay before returning to British Columbia for treatment.

“That’s the thing about cancer. I’m not the only one, it happens all the time to people. I’m not special. This just intensifies what I did. It gives it more meaning. It’ll inspire more people… I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try. When I started this Run, I said that if we all gave one dollar, we’d have $22 million for cancer research, and I don’t care, man, there’s no reason that isn’t possible. No reason.”

Eight days later, a telethon hosted by CTV raised $10 million for cancer research in his name.

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Sometime between May 6-15, 1980: Highway 7, Nova Scotia

“Twenty-six miles is now my daily minimum. It is a beautiful, quiet, peaceful country. I love it.” -Terry Fox’s journal excerpt

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On February 1, 1981, Terry’s dream of raising $1 from every Canadian was realized as the Marathon of Hope fund reached $24.17 million.

Terry died a month before his 23rd birthday, on June 28, 1981, following chemotherapy and interferon treatment.

In 2016, the Terry Fox Foundation announced it had raised more than $715 million dollars to support cancer research.

Speaking to rdnewsNOW at Don Campbell Elementary in June 2018, Terry’s brother Fred shared why he and other family members still do speaking and PR tours.

“I’m here to share that Terry was just an average kid, and give them some of the values and things Terry believed in, and that they could be just like Terry very easily,” Fox said. “He’d be so proud to know the young kids — and many of their parents probably weren’t born — are continuing his legacy and dream.”

Every year, millions of people in close to 25 countries participate in Terry Fox Runs and other fundraising events to honour his legacy.

This past winter, Terry’s adopted hometown of Port Coquitlam, where there is a high school named after him, pitched for Terry to become the new face of the Canadian $5 bill.

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September 1: 5,373 km – Thunder Bay, ON

“People were still lining the road saying to me, “Keep going, don’t give up, you can do it, you can make it, we’re all behind you.” Well, you don’t hear that and have it go in one ear and out the other, for me anyway… There was a camera crew waiting at the three-quarter mile point to film me. I don’t think they even realized that they filmed my last mile… people were still saying, ‘You can make it all the way, Terry’. I started to think about those comments in that mile, too. Yeah, I thought, this might be my last one.” -Terry Fox’s journal excerpt

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(with files from TerryFox.org)