Stephen Charles Fonyo Jr. (June 29, 1965 – February 18, 2022) was a Canadian runner with an artificial leg who was a nationally renowned fundraiser for cancer research and treatment, and a former Member of the Order of Canada.
It was like a dream or something, like another force.” The idea would not leave his head despite his own admission of not being athletic or particularly interested in raising money in a cross-country trip, saying, "My heart wasn’t there, not like Terry Fox’s.
The Canadian Cancer Society (specifically the BC chapter) were wary of any attempts that might taint the image of them or Fox's legacy in their rejection of Fonyo.
[1][2] On January 27, 2010, Fonyo gave a brief telephone interview to CTV News from the Surrey Remand Centre, where he was serving the balance of his sentence on an assault charge after breach of his parole.
In February 2015, friends and family reported to news media that Fonyo was in an induced coma in Royal Columbian Hospital after being stabbed by three assailants at his home in Whalley, a neighbourhood of Surrey.
[13] While in the Vancouver area to have repairs made on his prosthetic foot, Fonyo died in a Burnaby hotel room, just after midnight on February 18, 2022, at the age of 56.
[16] It won the Platform Prize at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival[17] and the 2015 Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary[18] Zweig followed up Hurt with the sequel Hope, released in 2017.
Film producer and screenwriter Greg Klymkiw, who wrote an open letter calling for Fonyo to be reinstated into the Order of Canada, said "I was frankly appalled that some persnickety pencil-pushers in the governor-general's office would have chosen to rescind this great honour for something absolutely amazing that Steve did at the age of 19.
[14] Hamilton Spectator sports columnist Scott Radley wrote "Yet at a time we're supposed to be more enlightened about addiction and possibly mental health problems, the near-complete purge of Fonyo from the public narrative somehow seems unfair.