Who Is Terry Fox's Marathon Of Hope?
English 10
20 Dec. 2013
“Marathon of Hope” It was not something new for someone to run across Canada, but for someone to do that but with an artificial leg, now that was something different. Terry Fox was an athlete who lost his leg to cancer when he was only 18 and decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Terry Fox shoved any doubt that anyone had of him running across Canada on one leg to the back of their heads after he showed what he could do. Losing a leg to cancer did not discourage Terry Fox, if anything, it made him want to run across Canada and become one of the nation’s greatest heroes to ever live. Terrance Stanley Fox was born on July 28, 1958 Fox in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Betty and Rolly. He had three siblings, an older brother named Fred, a younger brother named Darrell, and a younger sister named Judith (“The Early Years”). As a kid, Fox had lived in a normal house with a loving family, went to school, and earned a good education. He grew up playing all kinds of sports, but his one true love, like many kids, was basketball. What set him apart from any other kid, though, was his drive, his …show more content…
love, and his commitment for the game. He was the hardest working kid out there and everyone noticed it. He was the kind of person who can overcome any obstacle and cope with adversity that stood in his way. In eighth grade at Mary Hill Junior High, Fox played on a basketball team of nineteen kids, was the nineteenth player, and earned one minute of time on the floor the whole season (“The Early Years”). He did not let that get him down and by his senior year at Port Coquitlam High School, he was the best player on the team and was the co-winner of the Athlete of the Year Award with his best friend, Doug Alward, two times, his sophomore and senior year (“The Early Years”). After Fox graduated from high school, he went on to Simon Frasier University in British Columbia to study kinesiology, which is the study of the mechanics of body movements (Petter). Fox had it in his head that he wanted to be a high school physical education teacher because of his love and passion for sports (“The Early Years”). He made the decision that he wanted to try out for the junior varsity basketball team at SFU, which did not surprise anyone, and he made the team (Petter). Fox beat out players that were more talented than he was but he made it because he was the hardest working and most driven athlete out there and just plain out-gutted everyone else (Into the Wind). Shortly after his first season of basketball at SFU, Terry woke up one morning and could not even get out of bed because his right knee was swollen and it hurt to put even the slightest bit of weight on it (Scrivener). He had been battling pain in his knee most of his basketball season and just thought it was just some cartilage issue that may have been caused by a car accident a few months prior and it was something the doctor could fix it (Into the Wind). However, it was far worse than what anyone was thinking. On March 4, 1977, Terry Fox was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma bone cancer in his right knee and he was told his leg would have to be amputated within days to keep the cancer from spreading throughout his body. ‘“I knew there was something wrong, oh boy, did I know, when the whole family came in and Mom put her arm around me. The doctor came in and just told me, ‘You’ve got a malignant tumor.’ I guess I was supposed to be upset but I did not do anything. ‘What’s that?’ I said”’ (Scrivener). When Fox knew that something was wrong, he thought it was a major cartilage issue and the chance of cancer crossing his mind was one in a million. The night before the operation, Fox’s high school basketball coach, Terri Fleming from Port Coquitlam, brought Fox a magazine article from Runner’s World about a man named Dick Traum, who was amputee that ran in the New York Marathon (Scrivener). Fleming hoped it would give Fox something to think about, and the thought did linger on his mind. ‘“I told myself right then, if he can do it, I can do it. It popped into my head that I wanted to run across Canada”’ (Into the Wind). To Fox, anything was possible because once he set his mind to do something, he did not stop until he got it accomplished and if someone tried to stop him, they soon figured out that it was best to let him be and let him do what he wants. Later on, he called his run across Canada the “Marathon of Hope.” Then on March 9, 1977, Fox’s right leg was amputated six inches above his right knee and just a few weeks later, he was fitted for his first prosthetic leg. Just a few weeks after his amputation and he was hooked up to his first prosthesis, Fox was introduced to a sport he was very familiar with but with a few slight differences; wheelchair basketball (Scrivener). The first practice he went to, the men on the team there saw Fox’s skills and abilities right away. Since he was in a wheelchair, it took him awhile to get used to not jumping out of his seat for a lay-up as he had been used to for all his life and even had to restrain himself down to the chair (Into the Wind). Fox was asked to be on the team, he accepted, and they called themselves the Cable Cars (Scrivener). Fox then found himself in the same position he was in back in grade school, the last man on the team (Scrivener). Within a month or two, Fox moved from being the 13th man on the team to the sixth man (Scrivener). He was even picked to go to nationals and play in the wheelchair basketball games and went on to win the national championship (Scrivener). He then played on two other championship-winning wheelchair basketball teams (Scrivener). During the time Fox was playing wheelchair basketball, he was training for his marathon, starting at running a quarter mile a day and gradually working up to 23 miles a day in the course of 15 months (Scrivener). Fox didn’t run like he used to when he had two legs, instead he had an awkward double step on his real leg and hopped once on his artificial leg. He ran like this because his prosthetic could not come around quick enough for him to be able to run normally, so he took two steps on his real leg and one step on his artificial leg (Into the Wind). He started his training in February 1979, not taking a single day off except for Christmas because his mother persuaded him not to run (Scrivener). His mother did not approve of Fox running across Canada and thought he had absolutely no common sense but she did know that there was no way she would be able to stop him from doing it. Fox would push himself up steep mountains several times a day in his wheelchair until his hands were raw with blisters, until the blisters broke open and bled, and then callused over again (Scrivener). He learned to tolerate and fight through the pain and agony because he knew running across Canada would be anything but easy. During his training and during the time Fox played wheelchair basketball, he was taking chemotherapy treatments every three weeks for 16 months to kill any stray malignant cancer cell in his body before they multiplied (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). Fox’s doctors had not found any signs of the cancerous cells spreading but without chemotherapy, there would have been a 70 percent chance of reoccurrence of cancer (Scrivener). Ever since middle school, Doug Alward and Fox have been best friends and little did they know that they would set out on one of the greatest adventures known to Canadians. Doug and Fox played basketball together all throughout grade school and high school and even shared the Athlete of the Year Award in grades 10 and 12 (“The Early Years”). When Fox decided to run across Canada, he asked Doug if he would drive the vehicle that they would live in the whole time for him (Scrivener). Fox wasn’t 100 percent sure that he was going to run across Canada yet so Doug told him yes because Fox had been his best friend forever. Once Fox was serious and sure that he was going through with his trek across Canada, Doug realized that they would be living in a vehicle together for several months and thought about backing out. However, Doug already told Fox that he would drive the van and Fox would be furious if he backed out so Doug kept his promise. In order to make the marathon possible, Fox wrote a letter to the Canadian Cancer
Society asking for support in his journey across Canada. Fox described how Dick Traum, who ran in the New York Marathon, inspired him to run across Canada. ‘“It was then that I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say that it disabled me”’ (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). Fox stated that his goal was to raise $1 million for cancer research and that his quest would not be a selfish one. The purpose of his marathon was not to gain popularity and fame, but to raise awareness and money for people suffering from a deadly disease. ‘“Somewhere the hurting must stop... and I was determined to take myself to the limit for this cause”’ (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). The Canadian Cancer Society was skeptical about Fox’s intentions and doubted that he could raise $1 million but eventually gave in and supported him. Fox had also sent letters to Adidas and Chevy asking to provide shoes and a vehicle for the marathon. Adidas donated eight pairs of running shoes to Fox, Chevy donated the van that Doug and Fox would live in together for the marathon, and Fox was hooked up with three spare artificial legs (Into the Wind). On April 12, 1980, Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in St.
John, Newfoundland, and his Marathon of Hope began. The run was 5,300 miles from coast to coast and Fox planned to run 30-40 miles a day and hoped to be done in six to seven months (Into the Wind). A camera crew was hired to film the marathon and when Fox started his run, people came out of their homes, clapped, cheered, and sent him on his way (Into the Wind). The whole marathon was not one bit easy, Fox ran through thunderstorms, freezing rain, howling winds at velocities in which he could not even move, sweltering temperatures, and sometimes drivers would try to run him off the road (Scrivener). As Fox became more popular throughout Canada and with what he was doing, he was scheduled for several public speaking events every day
to tell people his story and why he was running across Canada (Scrivener). People wept as he would run by and women would run out of hair salons with curlers in their hair just to see Fox run and to cheer him on and some people would press $100 bills in his hands (Scrivener). All was going well until September 1, 1980 when Fox felt immense pain in his neck and chest when he reached mile 18 that day. Fox was taken to the hospital and soon found out that his cancer had spread to his lungs. He knew right away that is was cancer and tumors the size of golf balls and his fist were found in both of Fox’s lungs (Into the Wind). The doctors had given Fox a 10 percent chance of recovery and he was told in December that he was not going to live and that his Marathon of Hope was over. On June 28, 1981, Fox died in the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, British Columbia, exactly one month before his twenty-third birthday (Scrivener). Fox had run 3,339 miles in 143 days and ran his very last mile east of Thunder Bay, Ontario (Scrivener). Fox had reached his goal of raising $1 million, and his second goal of raising $24 million, one dollar for every Canadian. Fox felt like he had won, felt like he had made it, even though he had not. When the nation heard that Fox’s cancer had spread to his lungs and stopped his trek across Canada, people reacted in positive ways to reach out and help the young, curly-haired, inspiring man they had come to admire and Fox was presented with countless awards. On September 9, the Canadian Television Network (CTV) held a telethon to help raise money for Fox’s “Marathon of Hope.” Within just five hours, the donations skyrocketed to a staggering amount of $10.5 million (Scrivener). On September 18, 1980, Fox was made the youngest Companion of the Order of Canada (Scrivener). One month later, British Columbia honored Fox with the Order of the Dogwood and in November that same year, the American Cancer Society presented Fox with the highest honor, the Sword of Hope (Scrivener). Following his death, he has had 14 schools and 15 roads named after him and he even had a mountain peak in the Rocky Mountains named Mount Terry Fox in honor of him (“Facts”). On August 29, 1981, Fox was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame (Scrivener). A fifty-mile section of the Trans-Canada highway near the place where Terry stopped on his last mile was named the Terry Fox Courage Highway (Scrivener). He was also given the Lou Marsh Award for his outstanding athletic accomplishment and was even named the top fundraiser in the Guinness Book of World Records (Scrivener). The Sports Network named Fox as Athlete of the Decade alongside Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan (“Facts”). An old family friend named Isadore Sharp promised to hold a run each year in Terry’s name to honor what he had done for the Canadian Cancer Society (Scrivener). Isadore told Fox, “The Marathon of Hope has just begun. You started it. We will not rest until your dream to find a cure for cancer is realized” (Scrivener). The first Terry Fox Run was held on September 13, 1981 where over 300,000 people participated and $3.5 million was raised. More runs were held in that same month of September 1981 and more than one million people took part and raised $7.2 million. Then in December or 1981, Fox was named Athlete of the Decade by The Sports Network and nearly ten years later, Fox was named Canada’s greatest hero in a national online survey and the second greatest Canadian of all time, behind Tommy Douglas (Scrivener). During the spring and summer of 1980, Fox ran through six provinces, more than halfway across Canada, logging a total of 3,339 miles in five months and trekked a grueling five-hour marathon every day, and raising over $23 million from his Marathon of Hope for cancer research (Into the Wind). “His Marathon of Hope had started as an improbable dream – two friends, one to drive the van, one to run, a ribbon of highway, and the sturdy belief that they could perform a miracle” (Scrivener). The cancer that had taken his leg had spread to his lungs and the marathon was called to a halt. Today, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $600 million in 33 years. His courage, determination, humanitarianism, and selflessness have been an inspiration to millions of people worldwide. Although Terry Fox may have lost his battle to cancer, he left this world changing millions of people’s views on the way they saw the disabled and because of this, he is one of the greatest athletes ever to live.
Works Consulted
“About Terry Fox – A True Canadian Hero.” Terry Fox Humanitarian Award Program. www.terryfoxawards.com, 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Curwin, Kelly. “Terry Fox: A Legend Who Transformed Cancer Research in Canada.” Canadian
EXPAT Network. www.canadianexpatnetwork.com, 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
“The Early Years.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Facts.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Into the Wind. Dir. Steve Nash. Perf. www.amazon.com, 2010. Film.
Petter, Andrew. “About Terry Fox.” Simon Frasier University. www.sfu.ca, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. “The Marathon of Hope.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org,
1 Sept. 1980. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. Terry Fox: His Story. Toronto: The Terry Fox Foundation, 2000. Print.
“Terry.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Terry Fox Facts.” Terry Fox Humanitarian Award Program. www.terryfoxawards.ca, 2013.
Web. 21 Nov. 2013. < http://www.terryfoxawards.ca/terry_facts.html> “Terry’s Letter Requesting Support.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Works Cited
“The Early Years.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Facts.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Into the Wind. Dir. Steve Nash. Perf. www.amazon.com, 2010. Film.
Petter, Andrew. “About Terry Fox.” Simon Frasier University. www.sfu.ca, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. “The Marathon of Hope.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org,
1 Sept. 1980. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. Terry Fox: His Story. Toronto: The Terry Fox Foundation, 2000. Print.
“Terry.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Terry’s Letter Requesting Support.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
20 Dec. 2013
“Marathon of Hope” It was not something new for someone to run across Canada, but for someone to do that but with an artificial leg, now that was something different. Terry Fox was an athlete who lost his leg to cancer when he was only 18 and decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Terry Fox shoved any doubt that anyone had of him running across Canada on one leg to the back of their heads after he showed what he could do. Losing a leg to cancer did not discourage Terry Fox, if anything, it made him want to run across Canada and become one of the nation’s greatest heroes to ever live. Terrance Stanley Fox was born on July 28, 1958 Fox in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Betty and Rolly. He had three siblings, an older brother named Fred, a younger brother named Darrell, and a younger sister named Judith (“The Early Years”). As a kid, Fox had lived in a normal house with a loving family, went to school, and earned a good education. He grew up playing all kinds of sports, but his one true love, like many kids, was basketball. What set him apart from any other kid, though, was his drive, his …show more content…
love, and his commitment for the game. He was the hardest working kid out there and everyone noticed it. He was the kind of person who can overcome any obstacle and cope with adversity that stood in his way. In eighth grade at Mary Hill Junior High, Fox played on a basketball team of nineteen kids, was the nineteenth player, and earned one minute of time on the floor the whole season (“The Early Years”). He did not let that get him down and by his senior year at Port Coquitlam High School, he was the best player on the team and was the co-winner of the Athlete of the Year Award with his best friend, Doug Alward, two times, his sophomore and senior year (“The Early Years”). After Fox graduated from high school, he went on to Simon Frasier University in British Columbia to study kinesiology, which is the study of the mechanics of body movements (Petter). Fox had it in his head that he wanted to be a high school physical education teacher because of his love and passion for sports (“The Early Years”). He made the decision that he wanted to try out for the junior varsity basketball team at SFU, which did not surprise anyone, and he made the team (Petter). Fox beat out players that were more talented than he was but he made it because he was the hardest working and most driven athlete out there and just plain out-gutted everyone else (Into the Wind). Shortly after his first season of basketball at SFU, Terry woke up one morning and could not even get out of bed because his right knee was swollen and it hurt to put even the slightest bit of weight on it (Scrivener). He had been battling pain in his knee most of his basketball season and just thought it was just some cartilage issue that may have been caused by a car accident a few months prior and it was something the doctor could fix it (Into the Wind). However, it was far worse than what anyone was thinking. On March 4, 1977, Terry Fox was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma bone cancer in his right knee and he was told his leg would have to be amputated within days to keep the cancer from spreading throughout his body. ‘“I knew there was something wrong, oh boy, did I know, when the whole family came in and Mom put her arm around me. The doctor came in and just told me, ‘You’ve got a malignant tumor.’ I guess I was supposed to be upset but I did not do anything. ‘What’s that?’ I said”’ (Scrivener). When Fox knew that something was wrong, he thought it was a major cartilage issue and the chance of cancer crossing his mind was one in a million. The night before the operation, Fox’s high school basketball coach, Terri Fleming from Port Coquitlam, brought Fox a magazine article from Runner’s World about a man named Dick Traum, who was amputee that ran in the New York Marathon (Scrivener). Fleming hoped it would give Fox something to think about, and the thought did linger on his mind. ‘“I told myself right then, if he can do it, I can do it. It popped into my head that I wanted to run across Canada”’ (Into the Wind). To Fox, anything was possible because once he set his mind to do something, he did not stop until he got it accomplished and if someone tried to stop him, they soon figured out that it was best to let him be and let him do what he wants. Later on, he called his run across Canada the “Marathon of Hope.” Then on March 9, 1977, Fox’s right leg was amputated six inches above his right knee and just a few weeks later, he was fitted for his first prosthetic leg. Just a few weeks after his amputation and he was hooked up to his first prosthesis, Fox was introduced to a sport he was very familiar with but with a few slight differences; wheelchair basketball (Scrivener). The first practice he went to, the men on the team there saw Fox’s skills and abilities right away. Since he was in a wheelchair, it took him awhile to get used to not jumping out of his seat for a lay-up as he had been used to for all his life and even had to restrain himself down to the chair (Into the Wind). Fox was asked to be on the team, he accepted, and they called themselves the Cable Cars (Scrivener). Fox then found himself in the same position he was in back in grade school, the last man on the team (Scrivener). Within a month or two, Fox moved from being the 13th man on the team to the sixth man (Scrivener). He was even picked to go to nationals and play in the wheelchair basketball games and went on to win the national championship (Scrivener). He then played on two other championship-winning wheelchair basketball teams (Scrivener). During the time Fox was playing wheelchair basketball, he was training for his marathon, starting at running a quarter mile a day and gradually working up to 23 miles a day in the course of 15 months (Scrivener). Fox didn’t run like he used to when he had two legs, instead he had an awkward double step on his real leg and hopped once on his artificial leg. He ran like this because his prosthetic could not come around quick enough for him to be able to run normally, so he took two steps on his real leg and one step on his artificial leg (Into the Wind). He started his training in February 1979, not taking a single day off except for Christmas because his mother persuaded him not to run (Scrivener). His mother did not approve of Fox running across Canada and thought he had absolutely no common sense but she did know that there was no way she would be able to stop him from doing it. Fox would push himself up steep mountains several times a day in his wheelchair until his hands were raw with blisters, until the blisters broke open and bled, and then callused over again (Scrivener). He learned to tolerate and fight through the pain and agony because he knew running across Canada would be anything but easy. During his training and during the time Fox played wheelchair basketball, he was taking chemotherapy treatments every three weeks for 16 months to kill any stray malignant cancer cell in his body before they multiplied (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). Fox’s doctors had not found any signs of the cancerous cells spreading but without chemotherapy, there would have been a 70 percent chance of reoccurrence of cancer (Scrivener). Ever since middle school, Doug Alward and Fox have been best friends and little did they know that they would set out on one of the greatest adventures known to Canadians. Doug and Fox played basketball together all throughout grade school and high school and even shared the Athlete of the Year Award in grades 10 and 12 (“The Early Years”). When Fox decided to run across Canada, he asked Doug if he would drive the vehicle that they would live in the whole time for him (Scrivener). Fox wasn’t 100 percent sure that he was going to run across Canada yet so Doug told him yes because Fox had been his best friend forever. Once Fox was serious and sure that he was going through with his trek across Canada, Doug realized that they would be living in a vehicle together for several months and thought about backing out. However, Doug already told Fox that he would drive the van and Fox would be furious if he backed out so Doug kept his promise. In order to make the marathon possible, Fox wrote a letter to the Canadian Cancer
Society asking for support in his journey across Canada. Fox described how Dick Traum, who ran in the New York Marathon, inspired him to run across Canada. ‘“It was then that I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say that it disabled me”’ (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). Fox stated that his goal was to raise $1 million for cancer research and that his quest would not be a selfish one. The purpose of his marathon was not to gain popularity and fame, but to raise awareness and money for people suffering from a deadly disease. ‘“Somewhere the hurting must stop... and I was determined to take myself to the limit for this cause”’ (“Terry’s Letter Requesting”). The Canadian Cancer Society was skeptical about Fox’s intentions and doubted that he could raise $1 million but eventually gave in and supported him. Fox had also sent letters to Adidas and Chevy asking to provide shoes and a vehicle for the marathon. Adidas donated eight pairs of running shoes to Fox, Chevy donated the van that Doug and Fox would live in together for the marathon, and Fox was hooked up with three spare artificial legs (Into the Wind). On April 12, 1980, Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in St.
John, Newfoundland, and his Marathon of Hope began. The run was 5,300 miles from coast to coast and Fox planned to run 30-40 miles a day and hoped to be done in six to seven months (Into the Wind). A camera crew was hired to film the marathon and when Fox started his run, people came out of their homes, clapped, cheered, and sent him on his way (Into the Wind). The whole marathon was not one bit easy, Fox ran through thunderstorms, freezing rain, howling winds at velocities in which he could not even move, sweltering temperatures, and sometimes drivers would try to run him off the road (Scrivener). As Fox became more popular throughout Canada and with what he was doing, he was scheduled for several public speaking events every day
to tell people his story and why he was running across Canada (Scrivener). People wept as he would run by and women would run out of hair salons with curlers in their hair just to see Fox run and to cheer him on and some people would press $100 bills in his hands (Scrivener). All was going well until September 1, 1980 when Fox felt immense pain in his neck and chest when he reached mile 18 that day. Fox was taken to the hospital and soon found out that his cancer had spread to his lungs. He knew right away that is was cancer and tumors the size of golf balls and his fist were found in both of Fox’s lungs (Into the Wind). The doctors had given Fox a 10 percent chance of recovery and he was told in December that he was not going to live and that his Marathon of Hope was over. On June 28, 1981, Fox died in the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, British Columbia, exactly one month before his twenty-third birthday (Scrivener). Fox had run 3,339 miles in 143 days and ran his very last mile east of Thunder Bay, Ontario (Scrivener). Fox had reached his goal of raising $1 million, and his second goal of raising $24 million, one dollar for every Canadian. Fox felt like he had won, felt like he had made it, even though he had not. When the nation heard that Fox’s cancer had spread to his lungs and stopped his trek across Canada, people reacted in positive ways to reach out and help the young, curly-haired, inspiring man they had come to admire and Fox was presented with countless awards. On September 9, the Canadian Television Network (CTV) held a telethon to help raise money for Fox’s “Marathon of Hope.” Within just five hours, the donations skyrocketed to a staggering amount of $10.5 million (Scrivener). On September 18, 1980, Fox was made the youngest Companion of the Order of Canada (Scrivener). One month later, British Columbia honored Fox with the Order of the Dogwood and in November that same year, the American Cancer Society presented Fox with the highest honor, the Sword of Hope (Scrivener). Following his death, he has had 14 schools and 15 roads named after him and he even had a mountain peak in the Rocky Mountains named Mount Terry Fox in honor of him (“Facts”). On August 29, 1981, Fox was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame (Scrivener). A fifty-mile section of the Trans-Canada highway near the place where Terry stopped on his last mile was named the Terry Fox Courage Highway (Scrivener). He was also given the Lou Marsh Award for his outstanding athletic accomplishment and was even named the top fundraiser in the Guinness Book of World Records (Scrivener). The Sports Network named Fox as Athlete of the Decade alongside Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan (“Facts”). An old family friend named Isadore Sharp promised to hold a run each year in Terry’s name to honor what he had done for the Canadian Cancer Society (Scrivener). Isadore told Fox, “The Marathon of Hope has just begun. You started it. We will not rest until your dream to find a cure for cancer is realized” (Scrivener). The first Terry Fox Run was held on September 13, 1981 where over 300,000 people participated and $3.5 million was raised. More runs were held in that same month of September 1981 and more than one million people took part and raised $7.2 million. Then in December or 1981, Fox was named Athlete of the Decade by The Sports Network and nearly ten years later, Fox was named Canada’s greatest hero in a national online survey and the second greatest Canadian of all time, behind Tommy Douglas (Scrivener). During the spring and summer of 1980, Fox ran through six provinces, more than halfway across Canada, logging a total of 3,339 miles in five months and trekked a grueling five-hour marathon every day, and raising over $23 million from his Marathon of Hope for cancer research (Into the Wind). “His Marathon of Hope had started as an improbable dream – two friends, one to drive the van, one to run, a ribbon of highway, and the sturdy belief that they could perform a miracle” (Scrivener). The cancer that had taken his leg had spread to his lungs and the marathon was called to a halt. Today, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $600 million in 33 years. His courage, determination, humanitarianism, and selflessness have been an inspiration to millions of people worldwide. Although Terry Fox may have lost his battle to cancer, he left this world changing millions of people’s views on the way they saw the disabled and because of this, he is one of the greatest athletes ever to live.
Works Consulted
“About Terry Fox – A True Canadian Hero.” Terry Fox Humanitarian Award Program. www.terryfoxawards.com, 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Curwin, Kelly. “Terry Fox: A Legend Who Transformed Cancer Research in Canada.” Canadian
EXPAT Network. www.canadianexpatnetwork.com, 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
“The Early Years.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Facts.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Into the Wind. Dir. Steve Nash. Perf. www.amazon.com, 2010. Film.
Petter, Andrew. “About Terry Fox.” Simon Frasier University. www.sfu.ca, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. “The Marathon of Hope.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org,
1 Sept. 1980. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. Terry Fox: His Story. Toronto: The Terry Fox Foundation, 2000. Print.
“Terry.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Terry Fox Facts.” Terry Fox Humanitarian Award Program. www.terryfoxawards.ca, 2013.
Web. 21 Nov. 2013. < http://www.terryfoxawards.ca/terry_facts.html> “Terry’s Letter Requesting Support.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Works Cited
“The Early Years.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Facts.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Into the Wind. Dir. Steve Nash. Perf. www.amazon.com, 2010. Film.
Petter, Andrew. “About Terry Fox.” Simon Frasier University. www.sfu.ca, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. “The Marathon of Hope.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org,
1 Sept. 1980. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Scrivener, Leslie. Terry Fox: His Story. Toronto: The Terry Fox Foundation, 2000. Print.
“Terry.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Terry’s Letter Requesting Support.” The Terry Fox Foundation. www.terryfox.org, 2013. Web.
21 Nov. 2013.