Meet Martin Hume. Almost three years ago the 21-year-old from Elanora on the Gold Coast suffered major spinal injuries after a wakeboarding accident only two days after finishing year 12.

This week is Spinal Injuries Awareness Week, an important time of the year for the Spinal Injuries Association whose aim is to enhance the lives of people with spinal cord injury.

Martin Hume is a volunteer speaker for the association, visiting schools and talking to students in the hope his story can make a difference.

Martin sustained his injury in a wakeboarding accident only two days after he graduated from year 12, leaving him with quadriplegia. Continue Reading »

How a Capuchin monkey aids the life of a 27-year-old Concord man and his big family.

Ned Sullivan is taking it one day at a time these days. He’s living at home with his brothers and sisters, dogs, parents, and Kasey, his service monkey.

Sullivan’s mother, Ellen Rogers, spoke at the Concord Bookshop on Sunday about the journey from Ned’s horrifying car accident in Arizona to maintaining a mostly normal life with the help of Kasey who was donated to the family by Helping Hands, a Boston nonprofit. Continue Reading »

I have very strong feelings about the support of stem cell research, and I should – I have a friend whose life could be dramatically changed from the benefits of stem cell therapy.

Imagine you’ve just turned 16 and are right in the middle of your sophomore year of high school. You’re a gorgeous, vibrant, ambitious girl who loves to cheer and swim, donate your time to worthy causes, and just won your first beauty pageant – and a scholarship to attend the college of your choice along with it – the key to fulfilling your dreams and making the picture of your future in your head a reality. Continue Reading »

After spinal cord injury, Mark Rexus was told by doctors that he wouldn’t

After suffering a spinal cord injury in a work-related accident, doctors told Mark Rexus that he would never walk again.

“Only one doctor believed that I’d walk again,” he says after completing a walk from his front door to the end of his driveway, holding his 23-year-old daughter Sam’s arm on his left and using a cane for assistance in his right hand. Continue Reading »

clinical trial in Atlanta, Georgia, is proof that informed public debate is the key to medical advance

IF I’m honest, my first reaction to recent reports that the first human embryonic stem cell trial had begun on spinal patients in Atlanta was one of nonchalance.

Not because of its potential significance to those of us with spinal injuries — desperate for any news of progress — but because of the stop-start nature of the trial, plagued as it has been by legislative and regulatory restraints. Continue Reading »

ROCHESTER — Spinal cord injuries — which more than 11,000 American suffer each year — will be the focus of a special edition of WXXI-TV’s national heathcare series “Second Opinion.”

The episode airs 9 p.m. Thursday on WXXI-TV, channel 21 in Rochester, and cable channel 11 in Batavia. Continue Reading »

Millions of people worldwide experience spinal cord injuries. Breakthroughs bring researchers progress, but a complete cure is a long way off

Spinal cord repair focuses on finding ways to make axons regrow and connect properly, replace damaged neurons, protect surviving neurons from further injury and retrain neural circuits to repair body functions. Continue Reading »

Paralysed Devizes man Andrew Farrow is taking part in a ground-breaking medical study which involves him rowing 100 kilometres.

Mr Farrow, 45, is paralysed from the chest down but is using a specially adapted Concept 2 rowing machine.

Straps are put over his shoulders to keep himself upright and electrodes attached to his legs which send an electric current to make his paralysed muscles contract. Continue Reading »

PHILADELPHIA, PA (NBC) – The Philadelphia Eagles wheelchair rugby team gives life back to its members and smashes stereotypes one hit at a time.

A.J. Nanayakkara lost his “able-bodied” life with one bad fall when he was a martial arts instructor 16 years ago. The spinal cord injury left him with quadriplegia, in a wheelchair and in a deep depression for the next eight years. Continue Reading »

The Michigan Spinal Cord Injury Association (MSCIA) has chosen to utilize donation money from their first major event to assist a woman in Detroit, who has not been able to leave her house in over a year except by ambulance to visit her doctor. Continue Reading »