Betty Fox thanked Canadians for continuing to believe in her son's dream to find a cure for cancer as more than three million students across Canada ran yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope.
In Victoria, Mrs. Fox was on hand for the unveiling of a life-size statue of the one-legged runner looking toward the horizon.
"Thank you, Victoria. Thank you, Canada," she said as thousands of students who participated in the Terry Fox National School Run Day cheered.
The statue will be erected at Mile 0 in Victoria, the spot marking the western end of the Trans-Canada Highway where Mr. Fox hadplanned to finish his 1980 run.
A Fox monument was erected last spring in St. John's to honour the start of the cross-country run.
"It's so wonderful that [the children]are learning about cancer and the importance of cancer research," Mrs. Fox said in an interview after the Victoria ceremonies.
"That is why they are all tied together right from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean today participating," she said, holding a youngster's drawing of Mr. Fox on his run.
"I haven't found the right words for today," said an overwhelmed Mrs. Fox. "Other than to simply say, it is simply marvellous. Talk to me in a couple of days when all this settles down."
Mr. Fox, who planned to run a marathon a day until he ran across Canada, was forced to stop his journey on Sept. 1, 1980, because the cancer that took his leg had spread to his lungs.
He ran 5,373 kilometres over 143 days. His goal was to raise $1 for cancer research for every Canadian, which would have been about $24-million in 1980.
Mr. Fox died in June of 1981. Since then, more than $360-million has been raised.
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh presented the Terry Fox Foundation with a cheque for $10-million on behalf of the government.
Karl Neufeld, a building inspector from Campbell River on Vancouver Island, said he gets choked up every September as the anniversary for the run approaches.
He was especially emotional yesterday at Victoria's oceanside ceremony because he was there with his son, who has beat leukemia, meningitis and an unknown brain virus.
"I get emotional just talking," he said. "Our son has gone through this and survived, but a lot of that has been because of Terry. A lot. "
In Atlantic Canada, the 25th anniversary of Terry Fox's trek was greeted with enthusiasm.
"We have 300 New Brunswick schools participating as compared to 75 last year, and we have 100 per cent of PEI schools involved," said Heather Brander, provincial director of the Terry Fox Foundation for those provinces.
The big event in the region is tomorrow's run across the Confederation Bridge that joins New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The 13-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada-Highway will be closed to traffic between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m.
In Nova Scotia, 432 of the province's 470 schools registered to participate in National School Run Day. The historic town of Lunenburg was closed as 5,000 students were expected to parade through the streets.
Wendy Downe, who has been battling breast cancer for almost nine years, told students at Calgary's Elboya school that research dollars raised through the Fox run make a huge difference in extending lives.
"I've had four rounds of chemo and with each round it's given me more time," said Ms. Downe, whose latest treatment was Wednesday. "To me, every day is a gift."