Terry Fox's Contribution To The Development Of Canadian Identity

According to the McGRAW-HILL RYERSON CREATING CANADA history textbook, Social Change/Development is “Fundamental change in how society works. It involves big shifts in behaviour and values, e.g., the feminist movement or the abolition of slavery.” This was a time of change for the better because Canadians were acknowledging their past mistakes, e.g. how the Aboriginals peoples were treated, and trying to fix them by apologising. This was also a significant period where Canadian identity was being shaped into what it is today due to everything that Canadians have faced in the past, from fighting in the Korean war, to peacekeepers resolving issues, to fighting for a country where people all over the world are welcomed and accepted. We can analyse
Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and was forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres above the knee in 1977. On March 9th, 1977, the night before his amputation, Terry read about an amputee runner and began dreaming of running, just like him. Despite his condition, in February 1979, Terry began training for his Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research and awareness. During his training he ran over 5,000 kilometres. On October 15, 1979, Terry wrote to the Canadian Cancer Society to support his run saying “I’m not a dreamer, and I’m not saying this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. When he did this, he was being televised, broadcasted and interviewed all over Canada, spreading the awareness for cancer research. In the last year of his life, Terry was part of a telethon for the run which generated about ten million dollars which was spent on cancer research and the development of medical technology in relation to cancer. On September 1, 1980 after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, Terry stopped running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario; his primary cancer had spread to his lungs. On June 28, 1981, Terry died but his legacy definitely did not. An undisputed and unquestionable criteria that we can use to judge how much of an impact he made to Canadian development year after he died, is that even up until present time, the Terry Fox Run continues and is now hosted in a countless amount of countries all over the world still raising money that goes into cancer