Christopher Reeve

Christopher in his younger years (http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/christopher_reeve.-3351.jpg)

It takes a lot to be a hero. A hero can be anywhere from a make believe super hero or a actual person; but Christopher Reeve is both. Even when Christopher was paralyzed, he still cared more about others and was determined to help people.

Christopher as superman. (http://blog.newsok.com/nerdage/files/2008/12/christopher-reeve-superman.jpg)

Christopher was born on September 25, 1952, in New York. When he was a young child, Christopher lived with his single mother and 3 other brothers. By the time he was about 5 or 6 and started casting in several small T.V. shows and commercials all though his teenage years. He attended Cornell University, majoring in music theory and English. A few years after he started school, Christopher got the courage to move to Los Angeles. There, he already knew he would have many opportunities for acting. In 1978, Christopher's agent auditioned him for the movie Superman, and he got the lead part; this was the big brake of Christopher's acting corer.

Every thing was going great for Christopher, he was married, wealthy, and the movie superman was a huge success. Then in May of 1995 he was in a terrible horse ridding accident, landing on his head, and crushing his spine; leaving Christopher paralyzed from the neck down. He was unable to breath and his life was at serious risk. He was rushed to surgery and thankfully lived. His condition was very dangerous leaving him with infections, blood clots, and wounds that would never heal. Christopher would never walk again and was put in a wheel chair operated by blowing on a straw for the rest of his life.

Christopher in his wheel chair. (http://www.icn.ch/reedchair2.jpg)

Christopher was so upset, to him he felt like he had no reason to live; however this attitude did not last long. Soon after the accident, Christopher knew he wanted to do something to raise awareness of the danger of spinal cord injuries and paralysis. To make this problem a known subject, he started taking on talk shows and developing ideas of Paralysis research. With the help of scientists, Christopher soon came up with the idea of Stem Cell research. This is when you take good cells from unborn baby's and put them in place of the bad cells so the good cells will grow over the bad cells.

Christopher when he was sick. (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-10/11/xin_5410011116510312561513.jpg)

"Every morning I need 20 minutes to cry." said Christopher. After this long and hard cry each day, he would look in the mirror and say to himself "and now, forward." In 1990, 2 years after the accident, Christopher was elected chairman of the American Paralysis Association, the largest spinal cord research center in the world. He gave more than 8.5 million dollars to research on paralysis and improving the life's of people with this terrible condition. He started working more and more with stem cell research; which he devoted most of his whole life to. Soon, all of his hard work would pay off. The surgeries were going rather well and some people who never though they would walk again, were taking their first steps in years.

Sadly, in early October of 2004, Christopher went into cardiac arrest, then fell into a coma. 18 hours later he had a heart failure and died. This news was devastating to the whole nation. The courage and accomplishments Reeve had, proved that he is even more of a hero than superman.