45 YEARS OF IMPACT, DISCOVERY, AND HOPE
45 YEARS OF IMPACT, DISCOVERY,
AND HOPE
2024/2025 Year in Review
Forty-five years ago, Terry Fox started a marathon against cancer. Since then, the name Terry Fox has been associated with team science, bold research, and life-changing discoveries. The Terry Fox Foundation and the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) share Terry’s vision and have a powerful mandate to fund and pursue innovative research to find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent all cancers. Together, we are funding Canada’s top researchers, who are collaborating in new and transformative ways to save more lives and improve the quality of life for patients.
BREAKTHROUGHS THAT BRING NEW HOPE
Thanks to funding from the Terry Fox Foundation and other partners, the Terry Fox Research Institute invests in highly-collaborative, world-class scientific teams that drive innovation and fuel research discoveries that are saving and improving the lives of cancer patients across Canada.
TERRY'S STORY
He was 21 years old when he set off to run across Canada and just 22 when he died. In between, he changed the world. Meet the courageous athlete with a dream as big as our country.
YOUR SUPPORT IN ACTION
When you fundraise, participate, donate, and volunteer, you support ambitious research with the potential to significantly improve outcomes for cancer patients.
PROGRESS AGAINST THE 200+ DISEASES WE CALL CANCER CAN SEEM SLOW.
BUT IT'S REAL.
PROGRESS AGAINST THE 200+ DISEASES WE CALL CANCER CAN SEEM SLOW. BUT IT'S REAL.
When Terry was a kid, childhood leukemia had a survival rate of less than 3%. Today, that number is more than 90%.
Targeted therapies have helped almost double the five-year survival rate for melanoma.
The five-year survival rate for some cancers – including breast, prostate, thyroid, testicular, and Hodgkin lymphoma – is now over 80%.
Cancer mortality is decreasing. Since 1988, mortality rates are down 37% in men and 22% in women.
We love this question! Because the Terry Fox Foundation and the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) share Terry’s vision and have a powerful mandate to fund and pursue innovative research in the quest for a world without cancer.
TFRI invests your donations – along with the funding it receives from the Government of Canada and other partners – in the very best researchers across Canada through its highly-competitive, independently adjudicated grants and awards programs.
This enables us to apply basic science, translational research and precision medicine to three major initiatives: the TFRI’s Research Grants Programs, the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network and the Digital Health and Discovery Platform.
No matter how you donate – whether you give monthly, sponsor a student in a Terry Fox School Run, donate at a community event, or include a legacy gift in your will – your generosity supports ambitious, impactful research projects chosen specifically because they have the potential to significantly improve outcomes for cancer patients.
This connection – together with our shared belief in Terry’s dream of a world without cancer – is just one of the ways we’re able to maximize the impact of your donations.
Linda Johnston organized the Terry Fox Run in Victoria for years, so it’s not surprising that her mom, Eileen, is also a big Terry Foxer. When Eileen recently celebrated her 100th birthday, she wanted to have a tea party, but she didn’t want gifts. Instead, she asked guests for donations. She ended up hosting seven tea parties and raising more than $1,400 for the Terry Fox Foundation!
Eileen celebrating with Terry’s sister, Judith.
