Date of issue: Apr 13, 1982
Printer: Ashton-Potter Canada
Design: Friedrich G. Peter
Terry Fox
Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg in 1958. In 1977, he was diagnosed with cancer (osteosarcoma) of the right leg. At the time, amputation and chemotherapy were the main treatments and he underwent both of these. The night before his surgery, he read a magazine article about Dick Traum, the first amputee to complete the New York City Marathon. The article inspired him to plan a personal marathon to raise funds for cancer research by getting $1 from each of Canada’s 24 million citizens.
On 12 April 1980, he dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland, and set off for the Pacific Coast on his Marathon of Hope. As word of his exploit spread, more and more individuals came to see him run. Donations increased at the same time. In early September, cough and chest pain forced him to go to the hospital at Thunder Bay where he was found to have metastatic cancer in both lungs. He died in June 1981, having raised more than $23 million for cancer research. Fox’s Marathon of Hope has continued annually as the Terry Fox Run; it had raised approximately $750,000,000 by Jan 2018.
The Stamp
The stamp shows a sketch of Fox with a determined/pained expression on his face. His right leg prosthesis is clearly evident. The associated first-day cover shows Governor Ed Schreyer inducting Fox as a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1980. A second Fox stamp was issued as part of the millennium series in 2000. Designed by Ken Koo (after an illustration by Samuel Tseng), it shows a smiling Fox with his marathon road behind him. Above, a masked researcher holds a graduated flask, suggesting the research that his fundraising would enable.
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