Betty Fox | Cancer activist
Betty Fox, the mother of cancer research activist Terry Fox, whose marathon cross-Canada run inspired a global fund-raising effort to fight the disease, died Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was in her early 70s.
Betty Fox, the mother of cancer research activist Terry Fox, whose marathon cross-Canada run inspired a global fund-raising effort to fight the disease, died Friday in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was in her early 70s.
Ms. Fox's death was announced by her family on the Terry Fox Foundation website.
Terry Fox was a young bone cancer survivor with an artificial leg who set out in 1980 on his "Marathon of Hope" to raise money and awareness about the disease. He suffered a recurrence of the disease and halted the run in Ontario after covering nearly 3,355 miles in 143 days.
He died in 1981 at age 22 after becoming the youngest person to be awarded the Order of Canada at that time and is considered a national hero.
Ms. Fox kept her son's cancer-fighting legacy alive by organizing runs, raising funds, and helping launch the research institute and foundation that promotes Terry Fox Runs around the globe.
- AP