Terry Fox Canadian Cancer dollar from each Canadian to support his Marathon of Hope $1 commemorative coin

Twenty-five years ago Terry Fox asked for a dollar from each Canadian to support his Marathon of Hope, now his image will be on a $1 commemorative coin. The coin, which goes into general circulation, will be unveiled Monday at his alma mater, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. "It's obviously a very moving, and also we think, a fitting tribute," said Darrell Fox, Fox's brother and national director of the Terry Fox Foundation. "We've been involved from the very beginning and it's been really hard keeping a secret." Fox, who had most of his right leg amputated because of bone cancer, left from St. John's on April 12, 1980, with a plan to run across the country to raise money for cancer research. A few months later, on Sept. 1, he was forced to stop just outside Thunder Bay, Ont., when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Fox had ran more than 5,300 kilometres. He died June 28, 1981, at age 22. Darrell said Terry would have never expected his image on a coin and would have been overwhelmed. "He didn't run across Canada for rewards and tributes. He ran for the purpose of trying to find a cure for cancer." Darren Abramson, an avid coin collector and employee at a Vancouver coin collection store, said Fox is a great person to commemorate. But with millions of coins to be circulated, he couldn't say if it would become collectible. "If everyone grabs them and hordes them, and they're in mint condition, they won't be worth a lot," he said. "But if everyone spends them and good condition coins become rare, then they could be worth more." Usually the coin is called the loonie, but Fox suggests perhaps Canadians should call this coin the "Terry." Fox said the money has been used for exactly what Terry wanted. "In Terry's form of cancer, his survival rate would now be over 80 per cent," he said. "When he was first diagnosed back in 1977, it was a 20 to 30 per cent chance of survival."