Terry ran close to 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day across Canada - through snow, rain, wind, heat, humidity. He stopped in more than 400 towns, schools and cities to talk about why he was running.
He started at 4:30am in the morning, and often did not finish his last mile until 7pm 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 and the only thing that could have stopped Terry from reaching the Pacific Ocean did. Cancer returned in his lungs and he was forced to stop on September 1st, 1980 after having run 5,373 kilometres.
Terry’s story was simple but powerful. Terry Fox lost his leg to osteogenic sarcoma at age 18, 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.
Before his death on June 28, 1981, Terry had achieved his once unimaginable goal of $1 from every Canadian. More importantly, he had set in motion the framework for an event, The Terry Fox Run, that would ignite cancer research in Canada, raising more than $850 million since 1980, and bring hope and health to millions of Canadians.
Today, in Singapore, over 13,000 kms away from the start of the Marathon of Hope, Terry’s story is alive and well in the “Little Red Dot”.
The Terry Fox Run Singapore Committee, is excited to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of Terry Fox Run Singapore this year and looks forward to welcoming, you, your family and friends, colleagues, pets and strollers, as we all raise funds for cancer research in Singapore.