Terry Fox was eighteen years old when he was told that he had cancer and that his leg would have to be amputated. He accepted the verdict with courage and grace. “Nobody is ever going to call me a quitter,” he said.
On April 12, 1980, starting in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Terry embarked upon the cross-country run he called the Marathon of Hope. He wanted to raise a million dollars for cancer research. It was an extraordinary undertaking for an unknown young man with an artificial leg. His prosthesis, by modern standards, was rudimentary: every time it struck the ground, it hurt him. The weather was often harsh and some drivers tried to run him off the road. But he persevered. Every day for 143 days he ran the near-equivalent of a marathon (26 miles). When he got to Ontario, all of Canada was watching and cheering him on.
The cancer returned and ended his run on September 1, 1980. But he raised not only just $1 million, but $24 million before he died. And in the years since then, tens of millions more have been raised, in Canada and around the world, in Terry’s name, to combat the disease that took his life.
Leslie Scrivener was a reporter assigned to follow Terry’s progress. In writing his story, she drew on his diaries and interviews with Terry, his friends and family. She has completely revised and updated the text to take into account the amazing growth of Terry’s legacy. This is the authentic, inspiring account of the magnificent achievement of a Canadian hero.
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