Logan Seelye doesn’t like to use the word paralyzed. After suffering a life-changing injury nearly 10 years ago at a summer football camp, the 26-year-old Spanaway resident has heard enough about what he might never do again.

Logan Seelye doesn’t like to use the word paralyzed.

After suffering a life-changing injury nearly 10 years ago at a summer football camp, the 26-year-old Spanaway resident has heard enough about what he might never do again.

He cares more about what he can do — and strive to do.

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it,” Seelye said. Continue Reading »

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and SHORT HILLS, N.J., June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Craig Hospital and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation are proud to announce that Craig has joined the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). The NRN is a national network of leading-edge rehabilitation centers designed to provide and develop therapies to promote functional recovery and improve the health and quality of life for people living with paralysis. Funded by the Reeve Foundation through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NRN translates the latest scientific advances into effective, activity-based rehabilitation treatments. Continue Reading »

Queensland scientists will begin clinical trials of treatment for spinal cord injuries after discovering dramatic improvements in balance and coordination when blocking a protein.

Researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), and the University of Melbourne showed that blocking protein EphA4 could rapidly restore the balance and limb coordination of models with spinal injuries. Continue Reading »

SHORT HILLS, NJ — (May 28, 2013) — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Capstone National Partners are pleased to announce a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) to further support the expansion of translational research to find treatments for individuals living with spinal cord injury, including servicemen and women.

The DOD awarded the two-year, peer-reviewed grant to the Reeve Foundation’s North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), a consortium of university hospital neurosurgical and neurorehabilitation teams to bring promising therapies into clinical trials. Continue Reading »

An international team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that a single injection of human neural stem cells produced neuronal regeneration and improvement of function and mobility in rats impaired by an acute spinal cord injury (SCI).

The findings are published in the May 28, 2013 online issue of Stem Cell Research & Therapy.

Martin Marsala, MD, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, with colleagues at UC San Diego and in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands, said grafting neural stem cells derived from a human fetal spinal cord to the rats’ spinal injury site produced an array of therapeutic benefits – from less muscle spasticity to new connections between the injected stem cells and surviving host neurons. Continue Reading »

OTTAWA — Brampton West MP Kyle Seeback was one of more than two dozen federal politicians who participated in the 6th Annual Chair-Leaders Campaign Friday.

The fundraising campaign, organized by Spinal Cord Injury Canada, is held to raise awareness for people living with spinal cord injuries. Every year, Canadians get together to spend the day in a wheelchair and experience the challenges of accessibility. This year, organizers also wanted to celebrate ability.

This year, 26 parliamentarians were challenged to spend the day in a wheelchair. Continue Reading »

Paralyzed man says he chooses to have more good days than bad

NORTH ANDOVER — The past two years has been a tough road for Chris Boshar.

He was paralyzed below his shoulders and confined to a wheelchair when he suffered a spinal cord injury after a diving accident on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire on July 2, 2011.

“Everything is a hard part; the loss of independence; the cognitive and physical disability, and the fact that I can’t feel the touch of my loved ones,” he said.

Yet Boshar, who will turn 27 on June 18, refuses to give up and is resolute that he will one day walk again. Continue Reading »

Life without pain would be “incredible”, says 24-year-old Justin Levene from London.

“It would be nice to have a bit of variety.”

Three years ago, two days before his 21st birthday, Justin coughed and then collapsed with acute pain in his back and down his legs.

He had suffered a herniated disc with severe nerve damage which left him in constant pain.

After several years of surgical procedures, including undergoing spinal fusion, the damage to his spinal cord left him unable to walk. Continue Reading »

In April 2007, Amanda left a prom after-party with a friend who had been drinking.

On the way home, the driver crashed into a ditch. Amanda’s spinal cord was injured, and she was paralyzed from the neck down.

She was hospitalized for five months and went through a grueling regimen of physical therapy each day. Amanda had to relearn how to feed herself, brush her teeth, get dressed and do many other simple, everyday tasks. She was told she would never walk again. Six years later Amanda is still in a wheelchair. Continue Reading »

Michelle Stilwell one of three B.C. MLAs with a physical disability

In much the way she views her wheelchair racing career – she is an athlete with a disability, not a disabled athlete – Michelle Stilwell isn’t overly interested in framing her new job as a politician by the fact she uses a chair.

The multiple Paralympic gold medallist won a provincial seat in her first try on Tuesday, holding on to Parksville-Qualicum for the Liberals. Continue Reading »