Terry Fox

The hero I have chosen is Terry Fox. He passed away in 1981 but until then he had an inspirational fight for cancer research funds. He did this after he lost his leg to cancer as a teenager. He was affected by the amount of people he saw that cancer had affected while he was in chemo and that gave him an idea to do something. Being an athlete before the cancer took away his leg, he decided not to let that stop him and started his run across Canada for cancer research.

Using one real leg, and one artificial leg he ran 26 miles per day, 7 days a week. Along the way, he gained national attention as a young kid who was running to find a cure for cancer with only one leg. Terry was born in Winnipeg but started in St. John's, Newfoundland, hoping to run all the way across Canada to British Columbia. He began his "Marathon of Hope" on April 12th, 1980. He made it all the way to the Thunder Bay area before cancer spread to his lungs and he was unable to continue his journey. He ran a total of 5,373 km over 143 days. Then 9 months later he passed away in British Columbia.

Although he died at the age of 22 (1958-1981) Terry Fox's spirit and journey continues today as annual Terry Fox runs happen in local schools and communities. At first this tradition was only apparent in Canada, but now it has spread internationally. Terry is inspirational to me because he showed no matter what age you are, what disability or disease you have, you can make a difference. Whether the difference is big or small it will help, as now there has been over 500 million dollars donated to cancer research in Terry Fox's name.