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Fans mourn passing of a real superman: A legacy of heroism and advocacy By Thomas Caywood Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Paralyzed former Boston University hockey player Travis Roy credits Christopher Reeve's tireless activism with shaving at least two or three years off his own wait to walk again. "For somebody like me, I couldn't be more grateful,'' said Roy, whose spinal cord was severely damaged by a shattered vertebra in 1995 just seconds into his first game for the Terriers. "Christopher put spinal cord injury on the map, really,'' Roy added. "He did it in Hollywood, and he did it with politicians. He's done it with research and advocacy and raising money. He's fought it on all fronts like nobody else ever has.'' The "Superman'' star's death Sunday at 52 cost local spinal cord injury patients and researchers their most active and high-profile champion. "The particular nature of his injury and his vocal activism have brought to the forefront stem cell biology,'' said Dr. Eyal Attar, a researcher and clinician at Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Regenerative Medicine. Attar and his colleagues see enormous healing potential in stem cells, tiny embryonic cells that can develop into a variety of human tissues. Reeve took on religious and ethical objections to the research head on in the years after an equestrian accident left him paralyzed. "It's hoped that one day manipulation of primitive adult stem cells will be used to correct a variety of neurological disorders including paralysis that occurs from injury,'' Attar said. "I think Christopher Reeve's death, in addition to the late President Reagan's, simply underscores the importance of this field and the need for there to be applications of stem cell biology.'' The New England Spinal Cord Initiative was one of many local researchers and foundations that benefited financially from the millions of dollars raised by Reeve over the years. "He's been fighting so hard for stem cell research and spinal cord research. His loss is so huge to us,'' said NESCI Chairman Susan Sheehy, a nurse who works with quadriplegics. But Sheehy expressed confidence that the movement championed by the courageous film star has gathered enough momentum to roll on in his absence. "I think there are so many people now who have taken up the cause,'' she said. "It's given us so much more incentive and motivation.'' Appeared in the Boston Herald October 12, 2004 |
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