The annual fundraising run across the bridge was last held in 2015.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
The annual Terry Fox Run for cancer research will mark its 45th anniversary this year by returning to the Confederation Bridge after a decade-long hiatus.
The Terry Fox Foundation announced today that on Sept. 21, the 13-kilometre bridge between New Brunswick and PEI will be closed to vehicle traffic between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. to make way for runners and walkers.
The annual fundraising run across the bridge was first held in 2005, then in 2010 and 2015 – but it was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fox began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980, when he dipped his artificial leg into the harbour at St. John’s and set out to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
A little over a month later, Fox arrived in PEI via a ferry ride, as the bridge had yet to be built, and he spent the next three days running across the Island, where his fundraising efforts surpassed $100,000.
Fox ran 5,373 kilometres in 143 days, but he was forced to stop his marathon outside Thunder Bay on Sept. 1, 1980, when doctors confirmed cancer had spread to his lungs.
He died less than a year later, one month before his 23rd birthday.