Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope ended 37 years ago today

In two weeks, millions of people across the world will take part in the Terry Fox Run.

The run honours one of Canada’s greatest heroes and it has raised hundreds of millions of dollars since it began in 1981.

About a year before the first Terry Fox Run took place, the Marathon of Hope that inspired it was forced to come to an end.

It was 37-years-ago Friday when Terry Fox started to run his daily 26 miles, feeling strong and confident.

After 18 miles, however, Fox started coughing and felt pain in his chest, but he simply ran through the pain.

He ran until he could no longer run, at which point he climbed wearily into the van driven by his friend Doug Alward and asked him to drive to the hospital.

Doctors in Thunder Bay confirmed that the cancer had spread from his legs to his lungs, signalling at least a temporary end to his cross Canada journey.

“Well, you know, I had primary cancer in my knee three and a half years ago, and now the cancer is in my lung and I have to go home and have some more x-rays or maybe an operation that will involve opening up my chest or more drugs,” Fox told reporters that day, his voice breaking as he spoke.

“I’ll do everything I can. I’m gonna do my very best. I’ll fight. I promise I won’t give up.”

He returned home to Vancouver and continued to wear his Marathon of Hope shirt as he battled the disease at Royal Columbian Hospital.

Fox battled valiantly for 10 months, through days of nightmarish pain, but he passed away surrounded by his family on June 28th, 1981, one month short of his 23rd birthday.

The first Terry Fox Run took place that September, with more than 300,000 people walking, running or cycling in his memory.

That inaugural run raised $3.5 million.

“Terry did not lose his fight,” said Fox’s good friend and Four Seasons Hotel founder Isadore Sharp. “Perhaps he finished all he had to do. Terry is like a meteor passing in the sky, one whose light travels beyond our view, yet still shines in the darkest night.”