Brampton could get monument to Canadian icon Terry Fox

Brampton is looking ro honour Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope with a new monument to the late Canadian athlete and icon.

Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg in 1977, which required the limb be amputated 15 cm above the knee.

Rather than let the diagnosis define him, Fox began his Marathon of Hope in 1980 with the goal running across Canada to raise awareness and inform Canadians of the importance of finding a cure for cancer.

More than 40 years later, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised more than $850,000,000 for cancer research, and Brampton is now exploring plans to pay tribute to Fox with a new monument.

At a special meeting on Sept. 12, Brampton City Council approved a motion for staff to explore options to recognizing Fox as a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist with a monument in his honour.

The City has yet to fully greenlight, determine a possible location, or give council an estimated cost for the project- details which will come to the city’s next term of council, who will be voted in on Oct. 24.

The city already has one notable homage to Fox in the Terry Fox Stadium, and Mayor Patrick Brown said the request for a Brampton monument came from a local Terry Fox organization.

Hundreds of Terry Fox runs were held across the country this past weekend, including a run in Brampton on Sunday.

Fox ran an average of 42 kilometres a day for more than 140 days during his marathon until the cancer spread to his lungs, forcing him to end the marathon on September 1, 1980 outside Thunder Bay.

Fox’s run has inspired similar marathons by Canadian athletes, including Steve Fonyo’s Journey for Lives run and Paralympic athlete Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion Tour.