Terry Fox featured in Google Doodle ahead of virtual charity run

On September 13, 1981, 300,000 Canadians participated in the the first Terry Fox Run. In honour of the event’s anniversary, a Google Doodle has been designed in honour of Fox. After a cancer diagnosis and the subsequent amputation of his right leg, Fox set off on his Marathon of Hope in April 1980, and while he didn’t accomplish his goal of running from coast to coast, he did make it more than 5,000 kilometres before his cancer — which had spread to his lungs — forced him to cut his run short. Fox passed away in June 1981, but his legacy lives on through the Terry Fox Run, which will be held virtually on September 20. 

Absolutely in love with today’s @Google Doodle.

Forty years after Terry was forced to stop running, we continue to work to make his dream a reality.@TerryFoxCanada @marathonofhope pic.twitter.com/AwaNxopmzS

— Terry Fox Research Institute (@tfri_research) September 13, 2020

The Doodle 

The Fox Google Doodle was illustrated by Toronto’s Lynn Scurfield, who told Google that Fox was “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 honour of his marathon.” Scurfield said she based the Doodle off photos from the start of Fox’s journey in Newfoundland, noting that his run was “characterized by long roads, sometimes unpredictable weather and across beautiful landscapes,” all of which she included in the illustration. 

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“I hope I did Terry and his legacy justice with my work,” she said. “I hope we can all have a bit of Terry’s spirit in us to work for a better future. ” 

A virtual Terry Fox Run 

The first Terry Fox Run was held a year after Fox called off his Marathon of Hope, and just three months after he passed away. The 1981 running of the event saw $3.5 million raised across the country for cancer research, and to date the annual event has raised more than $800 million. With the 2020 virtual event just a week away, thousands of runners have signed up and raised more than $2 million for the run. 

To learn more about the Google Doodle and Scurfield’s inspiration, click here, and to sign up for the 2020 Terry Fox Run, visit the event website.  

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