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historical artifacts

Darrell Fox holds his brother Terry Fox’s prosthetic leg at the Archives Canada Storage facility in Burnaby, B.C., in December, 2013.photos by John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

The family of Terry Fox has recruited the head of one of Canada's largest credit unions to enlist partners to finance and build a museum in his honour in Vancouver in the next few years.

Tamara Vrooman, president and chief executive officer of the socially conscious Vancity, says Mr. Fox deserves a museum and she is rallying support for one that would house and display tens of thousands of artifacts related to his life, and inform the public about cancer research.

Mr. Fox, a distance runner who was born in Manitoba but raised in Surrey and Port Coquitlam, B.C., lost a leg to cancer at the age of 19. Three years later, with an artificial leg, he launched a run across Canada in a bid to raise money for cancer research. He began at St. John's in April, 1980, but the return of his cancer forced him to stop in August just outside Thunder Bay after raising an initial $1.7-million. People around the world inspired by his story still raise money by running.

"The ultimate goal is to, in whatever way we can, get enough support that we're able to create and build a permanent, public place for the artifacts and the story of Terry Fox and what he represents to be available here in Vancouver," Ms. Vrooman said Tuesday.

"It should go in a place that's accessible, a place that's meaningful in terms of Terry Fox and what he represented," Ms. Vrooman said. "I really think the message here is to extend the message of hope to future generations."

She sent her own message of hope in 1980 when, as a 10-year-old in Kamloops, B.C., Ms. Vrooman donated $10 in babysitting and chores money to Mr. Fox's Marathon of Hope. She said it was a lesson in the power of the individual.

"I thought, 'Hey. I made a contribution.' It never occurred to me that you could make a contribution like that and it would be acknowledged," she recalls.

After 5,373 kilometres, the return of bone cancer forced Mr. Fox to stop his run. He died in 1981. "I was a kid and processing all of that was a bit limited," Ms. Vrooman said. "But I think, in my own small way, that I understood what he created for us was a lasting marathon that, of course, gets replicated."

Since then, Ms. Vrooman has gone on through a career in the public sector that saw her serve as a B.C. deputy minister of finance and secretary to the B.C. treasury board before she joined Vancity in 2006.

But now she said she is concerned about making the Terry Fox phenomenon tangible to generations who were not around when Mr. Fox was alive and running.

"It's not a slam-dunk by any stretch of the imagination," she said of her goal.

"It's not something that one organization or one person can do alone. Having the supports of government and leadership in the community will be essential, not only just from a cost point of view and fundraising point of view, but from all the things that go with location and zoning and permitting as well as marketing and access and general awareness raising and support."

Ms. Vrooman said she is calling around to build a team to raise money, secure land and get the structure built within the "coming couple of years."

Asked whether she will be seeking major government funding for the project, Ms. Vrooman said "we'll not be leaving any stone unturned in that regard," but added she will be seeking broad-based support from varied partners. She said she is confident about finding the money.

Mr. Fox's family has previously talked about a museum, but in 2013, his younger brother Darrell said it was up to the public to figure out what to do with the tens of thousands of artifacts – personal items of Mr. Fox, correspondence from the public and other material. In an interview, family spokesman Rob Reid said the family is interested in a facility that would blend an education centre on cancer research with a museum.

Mr. Reid said a friend suggested Ms. Vrooman might be a good leader for the effort, prompting a recent meeting he attended with her and Darrell Fox. "We were quite enthused about her enthusiasm of getting involved in the project," Mr. Reid said. "We were very taken with her energy."

She said she has not yet raised the idea with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson or B.C. Premier Christy Clark. The City of Vancouver has looked at the idea in the past but never pushed it forward.

Mr. Fox is the subject of an exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau that features items that include the jug of Atlantic Ocean water Mr. Fox scooped up, intending to pour it into the Pacific at the end of his journey. Meanwhile, thousands of other items, including cards, letters and drawings that members of the public sent him, have been stored at a federal Library and Archives Canada vault in suburban Burnaby, B.C.

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