Terry Fox attends a rally at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square on July 11, 1980, wearing a National Hockey League all-star sweater presented to him by Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His parents, Betty, left, and Rolly Fox, right, stand with him. (Bill Becker/Canadian Press)

Vancouver author and artist Douglas Coupland has been picked by the family of Terry Fox to design a memorial for the Canadian icon outside BC Place.

Coupland told CBC Radio he was asked to design the memorial by the family about 10 days ago, but does not yet know what form it will take or when it will be completed.

He said it would likely include an image of Fox running, along with elements that acknowledge that Vancouver was the final goal in his Marathon of Hope, and the international legacy left by the young man.

"The entire time that Terry was out there running he was literally thinking of Vancouver.… When his stump was bleeding it was like, 'Stanley Park, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Vancouver,'" Coupland said.

In 2005, Coupland wrote a tribute book called Terry to raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation and has remained a friend of the Fox family ever since.

The new memorial will replace the current structure, a postmodern arch topped by fibreglass lions that was built in 1983 and has been the subject of criticism ever since. It is located near the Robson Street entry to the BC Place stadium, which is currently undergoing a half-billion dollar renovation to give it a new retractable roof.

Coupland, who is also a successful visual and public artist, declined to comment on the merits of the existing memorial on the site, but said the new one will have to live up to Fox's legacy.

"Nineteen eighty-three was 27 years ago and Terry's story was only three years old at that time, and since then it's grown exponentially. He's planetary now. The whole scale of everything he means and stands for has changed," said Coupland.

A national hero

Fox, who first lost his leg to cancer, became a national hero when he embarked on his Marathon of Hope in 1980 — a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research. His goal was to persuade every Canadian to donate one dollar for cancer research.

Fox cut short his run when the cancer he thought he had fought off three years earlier returned. He died on June 28, 1981, but not before becoming, at that time, the youngest person ever to be awarded the Order of Canada.

Two-and-a-half months after his death, the first Terry Fox Run was held on Sept. 13, 1981. Thirty years later the annual event has raised more than $500 million for cancer research in 28 countries.