09/17/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TdrE6Eitu/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope in 1980 was not, at the beginning, a national event. When Fox dipped his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12 1980, there were almost no spectators and almost no media coverage. The Canadian Cancer Society, which he had approached for support, had been lukewarm. Some of its officials doubted whether a one-legged man running across the country was an image the cancer charity wanted to project. Fox had secured modest corporate sponsorship and had the support of his coach, Gus Ryder at the Lakeshore Swimming Club, and a small group of family and friends who drove his support van. He ran into rain and wind through Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in April and May. He got blisters that became serious infections. He ran through them. By the time he reached Ontario in late June, the trajectory of the run had changed completely. Television coverage had grown. The story of what he was doing, a 21-year-old amputee running a full marathon distance every day, had begun to register with Canadians in a way that was different from ordinary athletic achievement. Isadore Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels, launched a fundraising campaign after his own son had died of cancer. Major corporate sponsorships materialized. People began lining the roads through southern Ontario to cheer. By August, when Fox was crossing northern Ontario on the Trans-Canada Highway, his daily mileage was front-page news and the national fundraising total was updated on radio stations every morning. He passed through Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. On the morning of September 1, east of Thunder Bay, he stopped running, told his friend Doug Alward that he felt pressure in his chest, and asked to go to the hospital.
