Steve Fonyo, who lost leg to cancer and ran across Canada to raise funds, dead at 56

Steve Fonyo, who lost his leg to cancer as a child and ran a marathon across Canada to raise millions for cancer research, has died. He was 56.

Fonyo’s niece Melody Kruppa says Fonyo had what appeared to be a seizure in a hotel room in Burnaby, B.C., on Friday and paramedics could not revive him.

Fonyo lost a leg to cancer when he was 12 and became a national hero in 1985 after completing a Canada-wide marathon to raise money for cancer research, five years after Terry Fox attempted the same thing.

Fonyo was appointed an officer of the