Schools Participating in Terry Fox Run

Students from many SD83 schools will be joining other students across Canada to participate in the annual Terry Fox Run in the coming weeks. While the official community run took place on September 15, school events are typically held a little later, during the last weeks of September.

For example, students at Highland Park will run for cancer research on September 19, followed by students at Bastion and Falkland on September 20. M.V. Beattie students will take part on September 23, and the run at Grindrod will happen on September 25. To learn more on this meaningful cause, please contact your local school,

Terry Fox of Port Coquitlam was an 18-year-old first year Kinesiology student at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and a member of the SFU junior varsity basketball team in 1977 when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. His right leg was amputated six inches above the knee, and he underwent chemotherapy.

Information from the Terry Fox story website (https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/), says he underwent 16 months of treatment and found he could not ignore the suffering he witnessed in the cancer wards. Terry decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research in a Marathon of Hope.

He wasn’t doing the run to become famous; he wanted to create change and fund a cure for all cancers. Terry ran close to 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. He ran through snow, rain, wind, heat, and humidity. He stopped in more than 400 towns, schools and cities to talk about why he was running.

He started at 4:30 am in the morning, and often did not finish his last mile until 7 pm at night. Sometimes Terry and Doug, his best friend and driver, would sleep in the van because they could not afford a place to stay. Some days hundreds of people cheered him on; other days he was alone on the road, and no money was raised. But Terry never gave up hope that Canadians would respond to his story, to his effort . . . and he was right. Terry entered Ontario on June 28th the whole country was cheering him on and donating to cancer research. Canadians saw that Terry’s try was unlimited.

Terry Fox took the first steps in his journey to make our country a little better for everyone. For 143 days, people followed his cross-Canada Marathon of Hope as it gained momentum, ultimately raising over $24 million. Remarkably, not even Terry’s death in 1981 diminished our nation’s passion for his cancer research legacy, with over $850 million raised and 1,300 projects funded.

On September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The only thing that could have stopped him did: cancer had appeared in his lungs. Even from Terry’s hospital bed, he continued to talk about the importance of donating to cancer research. He asked Canadians to continue to support his Marathon of Hope; he hoped his second diagnosis would help everyone understand that cancer could happen to anyone, even someone who had just raised over $1.7 million for research.

Terry died on June 28, 1981 at the age 22. This bold and courageous Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning. To date, over $850 million has been raised for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

“I just wish people would realize that anything is possible if you try; dreams are made if people try.”
Terry Fox