Famous Days for Students of English

12-04-1980

Terry Fox from Canada loved athletics when he was a child. When he was only 17 years old, doctors told him that he had cancer in his right leg. His leg had to be amputated.

When Terry saw how horrible cancer could be, he decided to run across Canada to collect money for cancer research. He wanted to collect 24 million dollars. That was the number of people who lived in Canada at that time. He called his run the Marathon of Hope.

On April 12, 1980, Terry Fox began his run. He ran with his prosthesis for 42 kilometers every day. He wanted to run 8,000 kilometers altogether.

In the beginning, he couldn’t collect much money, but it all changed when he reached Montreal. There, an owner of a hotel chain saw what Terry was doing.

He liked his idea. The hotel owner offered Terry food and accommodation at his hotels during his journey. He also promised to give Terry $2 a mile. He also asked other big companies to do the same.

The amount of money which Terry collected was growing. On February 1981, the goal was reached. People gave 24 million dollars for cancer research.

Difficult words: cancer (a very serious illness), amputated (when a part of your body is cut off), prosthesis (a leg which is not natural), chain (many hotels owned by one company), amount (a quantity of something).