TERRY FOX

'Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox', CC (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer treatment activist. He became famous for the Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research, which Fox ran with one prosthetic leg. He is considered one of Canada's greatest heroes of the 20th century and is celebrated internationally every September as people participate in the Terry Fox Run, the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.

Contents

Biography

Sports

Crash

Osteosarcoma

Marathon of Hope

Death

The run

Biographies

Popular culture

Awards and honours

Memorials

Schools and buildings

Streets and highways

Other

External links

Biography

Biography

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Rolly and Betty Fox. He was raised in the family home on Morrill Street in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, with his brother Fred, his younger brother Darell, and his sister Judith.

Sports

As a child, Fox was always an active sports fan, with diving being his favourite sport. Four things were evident about him; first, he loved sports of all kinds - soccer, rugby, baseball, and basketball. Second, he was not tall, so he had to work harder than the bigger kids. Third, he was extremely competitive. Lastly, he had a huge amount of determination.
In junior high school, Fox loved basketball and wanted to play guard on the Mary Hill Cobras team. He was only 5 feet tall at the time and not even good at the game. In order to achieve his goal, he spent every day practising his basketball skills. By Grade Ten, he was one of the best guards. In senior high school he was a starting guard for the Port Coquitlam Ravens. Thus, he achieved his goal because of his determination.
In his teenage years, he won numerous medals in diving and swimming competitions, and impressed many people with his stamina and endurance. Though many of his instructors encouraged him to stay with water sports and train professionally, Fox instead pursued the dream of becoming a physical education teacher. After graduating with honours from Port Coquitlam Senior Secondary School (which was later renamed Terry Fox Secondary School in his honor), he studied kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Fox was an active student at SFU and participated in a variety of on-campus clubs and groups.

Crash

On November 12, 1976, Fox was driving back home along Port Coquitlam's highway in his green 1968 Ford Cortina. He was distracted by a bridge construction site, and his car slammed into a half-ton truck. Nothing happened to the driver or the truck. Fox came out of the accident with only a sore right knee.

Osteosarcoma

In 1977, after feeling pain in his right knee, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. This is a form of cancer that strikes men more than women, usually around ages ten to twenty-five. Very often the cancer starts at the knee, then works its way up into the muscles and tendons. At the time, the only way to treat his condition was to amputate his right leg several inches above the knee. The car accident may have triggered his sarcoma.
Three years after losing his leg at age 18, the young athlete decided to run from coast to coast in order to raise money for cancer research. In creating the Marathon of Hope, his goal was to raise $1 from each Canadian citizen.

Marathon of Hope

Main articles: Marathon of Hope

Fox began by dipping his leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980. He intended to dip it in the Pacific Ocean when he arrived in Victoria, British Columbia. He also filled two large bottles with Atlantic Ocean water; his plan was to keep one as a souvenir and pour the other one into the Pacific.
His plan was to run about 42 km (26.2 miles) a day, the distance of a typical marathon. No one had ever done anything similar to the task Fox was undertaking.
Fox was unable to finish his run. X-rays revealed that Terry's right lung had a lump the size of a golf ball, and his left lung had another lump the size of a lemon. The lumps were not lung cancer; rather, they were bone cancer that went into his lungs through his bloodstream. He was forced to stop the run on September 1, 1980 just north-east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, after 143 days. He had run 5,373 km (3,339 miles, or around 23.3 miles per day) through Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario.
Soon after Fox was forced to stop, the CTV television network organized a telethon in hopes of raising additional funds for the cause. Any celebrities within range of Toronto were invited to participate, and the event raised millions of dollars. Many of the guests paid tribute to Fox; TV actor Lee Majors called him "the real Six Million Dollar Man."

Death

In June of 1981, Terry developed pneumonia, and on June 27 he went into a coma. He later died on the 28th at 4:35 a.m which was his favorite hour of running, a year after his legendary run, exactly one month shy of his twenty-third birthday.
Terry's funeral was large and was broadcast live on national television. He is buried in the Port Coquitlam cemetery, near his favorite lookout just outside the cemetery gates.

The run

The Terry Fox Run is run around the world every year to raise money for cancer research. It is non-competitive- no winners or awards, just people joining to raise money for cancer research.
Steve Fonyo, a cancer survivor inspired by Fox, completed the full length of Fox's course. Fonyo's left leg had been amputated.
In a public opinion poll, Terry Fox was voted the most famous Canadian of the 20th century. He was voted number two on The Greatest Canadian list.

Biographies

His story is dramatized in the 1983 HBO TV movie ''The Terry Fox Story'', which the Fox family has criticized for negatively depicting Terry Fox as having a fiery temper. In that film, he was portrayed by Eric Fryer, who won the Best Actor award at the 5th Genie Awards in 1984 for his portrayal.
In 2005, a new movie, titled ''Terry'', was produced by the CTV television network. In that film, Fox was portrayed by Shawn Ashmore. Unlike Fryer, however, Ashmore is not himself an amputee; digital editing was used to superimpose a prosthesis over Ashmore's real leg.
Author Douglas Coupland also chronicled Fox in his 2005 book ''Terry - The Life of Canadian Terry Fox''.

Popular culture

★ While Terry Fox was on his Marathon of Hope, a pop song was composed. "Run Terry Run" was performed by the Nancy Ryan's Singers.

★ British singer/songwriter Rod Stewart's 1981 album ''Tonight I'm Yours'' includes the song "Never Give Up On A Dream" (co-written with Bernie Taupin), a tribute to Terry's Marathon of Hope. Proceeds from the song went towards cancer research.

★ Eric Walters’s fictional book ''Run'' is about a troubled teenager who is inspired by a meeting with Terry Fox.

Awards and honours

★ Companion of the Order of Canada

★ Second place in the CBC's The Greatest Canadian popular vote

★ Order of the Dogwood, British Columbia’s highest civilian award

★ Lou Marsh Trophy of 1980

★ Named athlete of the year in his final year of high school

★ Named Canadian Newsmaker of the Year, 1980

★ Named Canadian of the Year

★ Named Canadian of the Decade for '80's

Memorials

''Further honours are listed at Terryfoxrun.org''

Schools and buildings

★ Port Coquitlam Senior Secondary School was renamed Terry Fox Secondary School in 1986. This school was replaced with a new building in 1999 which retains the Terry Fox name, and also houses the Terry Fox Theatre. Across Canada, there are now numerous schools named in his honour.

★ The Terry Fox Library in Port Coquitlam, a branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library, was opened in honour of Fox in 1983. The library houses memorabilia of Fox and his run, including the artificial leg that Fox used during his marathon.

★ The track at Simon Fraser University is named 'Terry Fox Field' in his honour. A statue of Fox can be found within the Quadrangle.

★ A Pathway in St. Catharines, Ontario named 'The Terry Fox Trail' in his honour.

★ The track at Saskatoon's SaskTel Sports Centre is named 'Terry Fox Track' in his honour.

Streets and highways

★ Kingston, Ontario: Terry Fox Drive; attached to it is Steve Fonyo Drive

★ Mississauga, Ontario: Terry Fox Way

★ Ottawa, Ontario (Kanata): Terry Fox Drive

★ Thunder Bay, Ontario: The Terry Fox Courage Highway, a section of the Trans Canada Highway

★ Vancouver, British Columbia: Terry Fox Way

★ St. Eustache, Quebec: Terry-Fox Boulevard.

Other

★ ''CCGS Terry Fox'', Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.

★ In April 4, 2005, a special-edition regular-circulation Canadian dollar coin depicting Fox began circulating. This was the first regular-circulation Canadian coin to depict a person other than royalty. It shows Terry running by a background of stone and trees of the Canadian shield. The shot was taken by photographer Gail Harvey.

★ Mount Terry Fox (; summit 2,650 metres), near Valemount, British Columbia is named in his honour, as well as Mount Terry Fox Provincial Park

External links

★ Terry Fox Run Site

★ CBC Digital Archives - Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope

★ CBC Digital Archives - Terry Fox 25: Reliving the Marathon of Hope

★ BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum

★ Order of Canada Citation

★ CBC.ca - 25 Years of Hope: The Legacy of Terry Fox

★

★

Biography

★ Biography from the Terry Fox Foundation

★ Biography at Simon Fraser University website