Terry Fox’s family has entered into a long-term agreement with the Royal British Columbia Museum to protect and preserve the vast collection associated with the national hero’s Marathon of Hope.
The collection, once stored in Terry’s room in the family’s Port Coquitlam home, includes the runner’s prosthetic legs, the shoes, T-shirts and shorts he wore, his personal journals, massive amounts of letters and the bottle of ocean water he collected in Newfoundland when he started his historic 1980 run across Canada.
The museum is displaying for several weeks this spring the 1980 van that Terry and his family used as a support vehicle for the Marathon of Hope.
Terry, who had his right leg amputated because of cancer, started the run to raise funds for cancer research on April 12, 1980 — 44 years ago this Friday — and covered 5,373 kilometres.
Near Thunder Bay, Ont. on Sept. 1, Terry tearfully ended the cross-Canada run after doctors confirmed that cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981.
Darrell Fox, Terry’s younger brother, who accompanied him on the marathon, told a packed audience at the museum Wednesday he was thankful to the museum for its commitment to taking care of the collection.
“It is an enormous responsibility, but we know as a family that the Terry Fox collection will be in very good and capable hands,” said Fox. “His story of hope and courage, of trying the impossible to show that it can be done … his story of giving unconditionally regardless of the personal implications and regardless of his personal well-being has stood the test of time.”
Fox said in the past 18 months alone, he has been invited to England, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil and the French Polynesian Islands to tell his brother’s story and launch runs.
In all, more than 30 countries host Terry Fox events. In Canada this fall, more than 600 towns and cities will host runs and fundraising events for cancer research.
According to the Terry Fox Foundation, more than $850 million has been raised since 1980.
Fox noted that 10,000-plus schools will hold Terry Fox events this year, adding educators are always looking for more Terry Fox materials.
Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, who was in the same junior high school class as Terry Fox in Port Coquitlam, said Terry showed the whole the country the “power of an individual.”
“He united a country in a way that we have never seen before,” he said. “His dream was to find that cure [for cancer] and we are well on our way to doing that because of what he did.”
Farnworth said preserving the artifacts is important to keep Terry Fox’s story alive for future generations.
“It’s a message to everyone that if they have a dream, a passion and something they believe in, there’s no obstacle they can’t overcome.”
The collection contains more than 50,000 items, including thousands of letters and cards from schoolchildren who wrote to Terry after he was forced to stop his marathon. Canadians only had to address their letters to Terry Fox in British Columbia and “the envelope would arrive at 337 Laurel Street in Port Coquitlam,” Darrell Fox said.
He said the Atlantic Ocean water that Terry had intended to dump into the Pacific in Victoria is still there and both his artificial legs and the sock he never took off during the run are part of the collection.
“He had two legs but there was a favourite — just like a favourite hockey stick or soccer ball, Terry had his favourite leg and that leg ran most of the 5,300 kilometres Terry ran,” said Fox. “These are items that are just in storage right now and need to be shared along with the stories behind them.”
Museum chief executive Tracey Drake said it will take some time to assess the collection before any of the artifacts are put on display.
She did not pinpoint a date or say if anything would be displayed this year, though the 1980 Econoline van — restored by the Ford Motor Company — will be in the museum lobby for several weeks this spring.
Drake said the museum has a 20-year partnership with the Fox Foundation to preserve and steward the collection, with the Fox family retaining ownership.
The collection has had various homes since Betty Fox, Terry’s mother, started saving every piece from the Marathon of Hope. Betty Fox, who died in June 2011, nurtured the collection for three decades in the Fox family home, using Terry’s room.
Some of it later went to the new Terry Fox Public Library in Port Coquitlam, the B.C. Sport Hall of Fame and the Terry Fox Foundation office.
It all eventually was transferred to Library and Archives Canada regional location in Burnaby. Since that regional office closed in 2017, the collection has been in storage, with some used for travelling exhibits.
Rob Reid, a Victoria running store retailer and close friend of the Fox family who erected the Terry Fox statue at Mile Zero — where Terry would have ended his Marathon of Hope — said the dream of building a standalone Terry Fox museum is still alive.
“I’d like to think by 2030 — the 50th anniversary of the run — that we could have a permanent home,” said Reid. “There’s over 3,500 museums south of the border. I think this is one that’s worthy of being in Canada.”
Darrell Fox said his brother was always against corporate sponsorship, even tearing the labels off the clothing he wore on the run, so asking private businesses to build a museum would go against what his brother would have wanted.
He said he’s content for the time being just seeing the collection protected in the Royal B.C. Museum.
“The next [step] is having it in a place where it can be seen. We haven’t decided what it can be yet,” said Fox, adding a standalone museum could eventually be a reality.
“The artifacts can share a story, but there’s also the story of cancer research and the progress we’ve made over 44 years,” he said.
“Terry, if he were diagnosed [with osteosarcoma] today, probably would have lived and never had his leg amputated, so that’s powerful and a story that a Terry Fox [museum] that carries the artifacts can also share — the story of cancer research past, present and future.”
The Terry Fox Research Institute now has more 50 partner hospitals and universities across the country, said Fox, “so we have the ability to share some amazing cancer research stories, which could then propel fundraising even more.”
Terry Fox has been shortlisted by the Bank of Canada to have his portrait on a new $5 bill and is widely considered to be a leading candidate, though the bank hasn’t said anything about next steps since 2020.
“It would be wonderful if something like this were to happen because it would certainly create more profile [for cancer research],” said Darrell Fox.
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