When he was 18 years old, Terry Fox was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive, form of bone cancer. In order to contain it, Terry’s doctors amputated his leg. While he was in the hospital recovering, Terry saw how little money was being allocated to cancer research.

Terry wanted to make a change. When he saw another cancer survivor, Dick Traum, run the New York City Marathon with a prosthetic leg, an idea came to him. In order to raise awareness, and a million dollars in funding, Terry decided to run a marathon across Canada.

So Terry trained, planned, and prepared. He started his Marathon of Hope three years after his diagnosis. He ran over 5,000 kilometers—3,000 miles—in 143 days. He raised a lot of awareness, hope, and over a million dollars. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to his lungs, and he needed to stop his marathon for treatment. He passed away shortly after.

Every September, students across thousands of schools in Canada raise funds and run to continue the movement that Terry started. The country’s collective effort has raised nearly a billion dollars for cancer research since Terry’s initial marathon.

While Terry was, clearly, driven to finish his marathon himself—“The running I can do, even if I have to crawl every last mile,” he wrote—as it so often does, life happened. What Terry started has continued beyond his lifetime. It saved and extended countless lives. 

Most importantly, it continues to compel the rest of us to help him finish the Marathon of Hope, and continue to develop better treatments for cancer.