Terry Fox Plaza

Terrance Stanley “Terry” Fox, a young athlete from Port Coquitlam near Vancouver, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his right knee in 1977 at age 18, and within a week his leg was amputated 15 centimeters above the knee. During chemotherapy, he was deeply moved by the suffering of younger cancer patients treated alongside him, and in early 1978 he conceived the Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research by running one marathon each day from Newfoundland to British Columbia and hoping to collect one dollar from each of Canada’s 24 million people. The run began on April 12, 1980, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and he ran nearly a full marathon, 42 kilometers or 26 miles, every day, an extraordinary physical feat that captured the nation’s imagination through the summer and made him a national figure by August. On September 1, 1980, just east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, the run ended suddenly when tests showed that his cancer had spread to his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981. His legacy in Canada was profound: he helped bind the country together through his journey, brought disability and cancer into public view, and inspired the annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, which grew to involve millions of participants in more than 50 countries and had raised just over half a billion dollars in his name at the time of the sculpture’s dedication. Terry’s run lasted 143 days and covered 5,373 kilometers, or 3,339 miles, just under two-thirds of his planned route across the country.

British Columbia · Canada