Sean Menard’s documentary “Run Terry Run” draws on 91 reels of restored and largely unseen footage of Terry Fox captured during his Marathon of Hope in 1980.HO/The Canadian Press
The widely accepted short list of the greatest Canadians in history features a collection of icons whose accomplished careers spanned decades: Celine Dion, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Hadfield and Alexander Graham Bell, to name a few. And then, there is Terry Fox.
Fox never went to space, never made a technological breakthrough and never wrote or performed a smash hit. Yet in his brief 22 years, the curly haired mesomorph from Port Coquitlam, B.C., gripped the hearts of Canadians more tightly than few ever have.
And now, 45 years after his Marathon of Hope – a running journey that carried him from Newfoundland to Thunder Bay on a prosthetic leg – he still holds them tighter than do most of our past political leaders and cultural heroes.
His legacy has grown stronger with each passing generation; and his story is now so deeply woven into Canadian identity that one can’t help but ask: Why, exactly, does it continue to hold such staying power?
For the uninitiated, after losing his right leg to bone cancer, Fox decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research at just 21 years old. He ran a marathon a day, 42 kilometres, battling snowstorms in Newfoundland, discouragement after being met with small crowds in the Maritime provinces, and occasionally clashing with his friend and driver, Doug Alward.
After 21-year-old Terry Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer, he ran a marathon a day from St. John’s, N.L. until he was forced to end his journey in Thunder Bay, Ont.
