Christopher Reeve Philanthropy
Christopher D’Olier Reeve was born on September 25, 1952 in New York. Before playing the popular superhero Superman, he was already fond of stage acting. He enrolled in the Princeton Day School in New Jersey with his brother and showed an excellence in academics and all kinds of sports at an early age. He participated in quite a few school activities and was the Glee Club student director and president of the Drama Club.
Christopher Reeve caught the eye of producers after he graduated from Juilliard in 1974. He was offered many acting gigs on Broadway and eventually auditioned for the role of Clark Kent in Superman. And the rest is history.
In 1995, he fell off a horse that caused a cervical spinal injury that paralyzed him from the neck down. After going through treatments and surgeries, Christopher Reeve traveled to Israel and met many patients with the same illness. He was very inspired that he became vice chairman of the National Organization on Disability and chairman of the American Paralysis Association. Christopher Reeve emerged as an activist for embryonic stem cell research.
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is one of the leading bastions in the field of spinal cord research. The foundation aims to find treatments for people suffering from spinal cord paralysis and other disabilities, specifically neurological disorders. One of its missions is to help people with disabilities enjoy life.
The foundation was initially known as American Paralysis Foundation (APF). But since Christopher Reeve’s passion, creativity, and brilliance contributed to the success of spinal cord research, APF eventually became the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, and then later on, the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
In 2006 alone, the foundation awarded over $64 million in research grants. Over $8 million quality-of-life grants were given away.
In 2004, Christopher Reeve died of a heart failure at the age of 52. His wife, Dana Reeve, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and died the following year at the age of 44. In their honor, the foundation was renamed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
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