Remembering a Superhero

Christopher Reeve once reasoned that if man could walk on the moon, why couldn’t people with paralysis walk again?

“Just a few short years ago, the notion of the two million people worldwide living with paralysis, getting out of their wheelchairs and walking again seemed about as practical as walking on the cratered surface of the moon did four decades ago,” he wrote on his Web site July 5, 2001. “But today, in this new millennium, we know that it IS going to happen, and it’s only a matter of when.”

Although the actor and disability advocate never realized his dream, his message gave hope to others who dream of one day leaving their wheelchairs.

Before the 52-year-old Reeve died last month of heart failure, reportedly brought on by complications from a pressure wound, he tirelessly promoted research to find a cure.

“He was the best advocate for the physically challenged in the country,” says Graham-Field vice president of corporate accounts Ray Ganz, who first met Reeve nine years ago while working for Gateway to a Cure, a St. Louis-based organization that promotes spinal cord research. Reeve headlined several fund-raisers for the organization, and the two developed a friendship.

Ganz’ company at the time, Everest & Jennings (now a division of Graham-Field), made Reeve’s first wheelchair shortly after the 1995 equestrian accident that left him paralyzed below the neck.

“He never lost his sense of humor,” says Ganz. “Under the circumstances he was such a warm and caring person. He never sang the blues. He was so committed to finding a cure.”

Shortly after the accident, the Superman star was not so optimistic. After fighting for his life — at the time doctors only gave him a 50 percent chance of survival — Reeve admitted that he considered ending it. But with the tenacity of the hero he portrayed years earlier on the big screen, Reeve courageously battled his disability and brought attention to issues facing people with paralysis.

Research became the focus of Reeve’s life as he teamed up with the American Paralysis Foundation in 1999 to form the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research to develop treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.

Reeve kept up a vigorous program, exercising for several hours each day, and in 2000 showed slight progress by regaining movement of an index finger. He regained some sensation in other parts of his body with the help of electrical stimulation, and he underwent experimental surgery that allowed him to breath for hours at a time without a ventilator.

“Learning to live with paralysis is a tremendous adjustment, but now there is every reason to believe it’ll be a temporary one,” Reeve wrote on his Web site.

After his accident, Reeve continued to work in television and the movies, both on and off the screen. The latest project that he directed, “The Brooke Ellison Story,” portrays the story of a woman who became quadriplegic at the age of 11, then went on to graduate from Harvard. The television movie was scheduled to debut Oct. 25 on A&E.

“Christopher was a hero to many people, yet he always said it was the ordinary people living with disability who were truly extraordinary,” said Kathy Lewis, president and CEO of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. “He will be missed for his life, his work, his passion and his ceaseless courage in the face of adversity that brought hope to millions around the world.”

Ganz remembers that when he took Reeve to Rams and Cardinals games in St. Louis, Reeve seemed to be the star around the athletes. “The players would come up to him and give him autographs, balls and jerseys,” he said. “He just touched everybody.”

For more information on the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, visit www.christopherreeve.org or the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center at www.paralysis.org.