BBC News | HEALTH | Reeve: I'll walk within three years

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Saturday, 22 January, 2000, 19:18 GMT

Reeve: I'll walk within three years

Hollywood star Christopher Reeve - Superman to millions of film fans - has promised to walk again within three years.

The 47-year-old actor, who was paralysed after falling from a horse five years ago, said sheer competitiveness was driving his recovery.

During a fund-raising trip to London, he said: "I always said that on my 50th birthday I would stand up and thank everybody who had helped me."

He said his willpower had been strengthened by a meeting with Martin Schwartz, a Zurich-based spinal injuries expert.

Schwartz is working on a technique to heal the sort of spinal injuries from which Reeve is suffering.

Reeve said: "He flew over from Zurich to meet me. The very exciting news is that he'll be ready for human trials in 18 months.

"Five years ago that would have been unthinkable. That's very encouraging."

Daily goals

Reeve also described his determination to breathe unaided again.

He said: "I compete with myself all the time.

"For example, I'm on a programme to be able to breathe off this ventilator, to breathe on my own.

"I'm working with two doctors from the University of Florida, and every day they give me an assignment, and then I e-mail them, and then they give me the next day's assignment.

"If they tell me: 'Tomorrow, breathe for 80 minutes off the hose', then I go for 90."

He said that in this way, he had regained full - if weakened - use of his diaphragm, even though he had previously been told he would never breathe unaided again.

Reeve took his first tentative steps since his accident last year.

His charity, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, recently announced that it had developed two drugs capable of reducing the impact of spinal injuries.

Related to this story:
Superman flies in to rescue Dome (22 Jan 00 | Entertainment)
Implants could help paralysed patients (10 Nov 99 | Health)

Internet Links: Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation Spinal Injuries Association International Spinal Research Trust
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Health Contents: Medical notes | Background Briefings |