News

Volume 2 Issue 20 - October 15, 2004

Christopher Reeve: Crusader for disabled passes away

DNIS News Network -

Actor Christopher Reeve, the star of Superman movies and champion for the cause of disabled people, passed away on October 10 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his New York home.

Reeve became an active advocate for disabled people after he was paralysed from the neck down in a 1995 horseriding accident. He was a forceful advocate for expanding embryonic stem cell research. The stem cells exist in embryos and adults, notably in the umbilical cord and in bone marrow and are the building blocks of life. They have the potential to repair or regenerate damaged cells and tissue.

Reeve believed that if embryonic stem cell research had not been impeded by the Bush administration, then a cure might have been found for his condition in his lifetime. His New Jersey-based Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation emerged under his star power and relentless fundraising as a leading source for research money for neuro-scientists.

Reeve was 52 and is survived by his mother Barbara Johnson and his father Franklin Reeve, his brother Benjamin Reeve, his wife Dana, their 12-year old son Will and his two children from his former relationship with Gae Exton, Mathew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.