Today’s Google Doodle honours Canadian hero Terry Fox & his Marathon of Hope

Today marks the 40th annual first Terry Fox run, which first took place on September 13, 1981, and Google has celebrated its memory in their Doodle. Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, MB on July 28, 1958, and was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 18. Fox decided to run across Canada a few years later in what he called the “Marathon of Hope,” to raise money to find a cure for cancer. Fox could not complete his run, however managed to raise $24-million for cancer research, accomplishing his goal of a $1 donation for every Canadian citizen. Since it first started, the Terry Fox run has raised $800-million for cancer research. The virtual Terry Fox run takes place today.

The Google Doodle was created by Lynn Scurfield, an artist from Toronto, and celebrates the courage and inspiration of Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope for all Canadians and across the world.

“The Terry Fox run is a staple of my childhood school days. Every year in September, the whole school would take part of the day off and walk around the baseball diamond in honor of his marathon. This topic is also meaningful to me because I was diagnosed with a very curable form of cancer called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in late 2018 and went through both chemo and radiation for the first half of 2019. My personal experience with cancer in addition to the research I did on Terry for this Doodle has made my respect towards him grow even more. His marathon contributed a lot to both cancer and prosthetic research and continues to do so today. It’s truly amazing.“

–Lynn Scurfield

To visit the Terry Fox Foundation, please click here.

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