More than four decades after Terry Fox inspired the nation, his enduring spirit lives on in a new generation.
Across Canada, the annual Terry Fox Run to raise money for cancer research is returning to in-person events after taking place virtually for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than four million people are expected to participate this year, including 17-year-old Jorja Scott of Kincardine, Ont., located along the eastern shore of Lake Huron.
“Yeah, it’s amazing what he did…I couldn’t even imagine,” Scott told CTV News.
A year ago, Scott was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the same bone cancer as Fox.
She says she started feeling pain while playing sports, but it wasn’t until she started limping while walking that she decided to go to the hospital.
Scott underwent surgery to get a new reconstructed knee and is undergoing 18 chemotherapy treatments.
But through it all, she says she finds strength in Terry Fox.
“He’s such a good influence to look up to during this time,” Scott said.
On April 12, 1980, Fox began his run across Canada known as the Marathon of Hope.
Starting in St. John’s, NL, he ran nearly 42 kilometers a day, morning to night, through the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and Ontario, stopping in hundreds of cities, schools and towns along the way.
On September 1, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, Fox was forced to stop outside of Thunder Bay, Ont., after cancer developed in his lungs.
He died on June 28, 1981, at only 22 years old.
Since then, over $850 million has been raised for cancer research through the annual Terry Fox Run.
“I was lucky to have his brother here in my house. I had his niece in our house,” said Tim Duguay, a Terry Fox event planner in Port Williams, Nova Scotia, about 80 kilometers northwest of Halifax. .
Duguay plans to raise more than $2,000 by running 42 kilometers along Nova Scotia’s scenic Cape Split Trail — one kilometer for every year there has been a Terry Fox Run.
“It’s such a rewarding journey when you get to that final finish line, and look above and just look at that view,” he said. “It’s my little space of happiness.”