By Don C. Reed
On September 10th, 1994, my son Roman Reed broke his neck in a college football game, and became paralyzed from the shoulders down.
That was 30 years ago. But Roman never lost heart. “This is just temporary,” he would say.
There were surprises ahead.
With the help of legendary Assemblyman John Dutra, (D-Fremont) and countless patient advocates including Christopher “Superman” Reeve, Karate star Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, General “Stormin’Norman” Schwartzkopf, and many more, we passed a law named after Roman.
Great scientists like Hans Keirstead, Os Steward, Mark Tuszinsky, Jose Cibelli and many more helped us gather support.
We were awarded one million dollars a year, for five years.
Small but mighty, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act provided seed funding to fight for paralysis research.
One night it all came together, on opening day of the Roman Reed Lab.
A paralyzed rat called Fighter had an experimental operation. Before the operation, she dragged her hindquarters like luggage. Afterward, she scampered rapidly. I held her in my hands, felt the tiny muscles struggling to be free.
Later, the same experiment was given to newly injured humans…who recovered function in hands and arms…
And now? We will try our small program once again: asking the same one million a year for five years. (Note: the bill is “under construction” and does not have a number yet.) We will be sponsored by Assemblymember Alex Lee of California’s 24th district.
As you know, it is extremely difficult to obtain funding for science nowadays.
Here is a small but proven program. It has worked before, and it doesn’t cost much. Please give us a smile and a positive comment, and pass it along to your friends.
As Roman often said, “Take a stand, in favor of research for cure: take a stand — so one day, everybody can!!”