Terry Fox Mile 0

​Terry Fox is a Canadian hero who is known all around the world. This plaque is displayed on the base of Terry's statue in Victoria, British Columbia, at Mile 0 of the TransCanada Highway. As described in the wording of the plaque, Terry started his run across Canada at the eastern end of the TransCanada Highway, in St John's, Newfoundland. Remarkably, he ran the equivalent of a marathon every single day for 143 days - on one healthy leg and one prosthetic leg! Had he been able to complete his dream, his journey would have ended at the exact spot in Victoria where his statue and this plaque now stand. 

 

The plaque reads:

 

"Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada's west coast. An active teenage involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977. While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. 

 

He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope. 

 

After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada's Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

 

It was a journey that Canadians never forgot. 

 

However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5, 373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22. 

 

The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning."