POPE: REEVE 'WAS SUPER IN LIFE' By David Rogers, Palm Beach Daily News, 10/12/2004
'Superman' actor, a quadriplegic who died Sunday, spurred philanthropist to donate $10 million for research center.
Palm Beach, Florida, 1994 - Ten years ago, Lois Pope and Christopher Reeve danced together at a gala for her LIFE (Leaders in Furthering Education) Foundation.

Miami, Florida, 2000 - Philanthropist Lois Pope is shown with actor Christopher Reeve at the dedication of the Lois Pope LIFE Center at the University of Miami. Reeve's neck was broken when he tumbled off a horse. He became a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. For the next nine years, until his death Sunday, Reeve worked steadily as an international advocate for spinal cord injury research.

South Florida philanthropist Lois Pope never got a second dance with Christopher Reeve.
Ten years ago, Pope and the Superman actor danced together at a gala for her LIFE (Leaders in Furthering Education) Foundation. Months later, in May 1995, Reeve's neck was broken when he tumbled off a horse. He became a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.

For the next nine years, until his death Sunday at a hospital near his Pound Ridge, N.Y., home, Reeve worked steadily as an international advocate for spinal cord injury research. In the process, Reeve help bring unprecedented attention and millions of dollars to that cause.

Pope's friendship with Reeve prompted her to donate $10 million to the University of Miami as a lead gift to build and equip a facility for neurological disease research.

Christopher Reeve

Through the years, Pope would tell the actor he would one day get out of his wheelchair and dance with her once more.

His death ended those hopes. Reeve, 52. suffered cardiac arrest Saturday, then went into a coma Sunday before dying, according to The Associated Press. A systemic infection caused by a pressure wound had developed before his death.
Pope took the news of Reeve's death hard.
"I felt like somebody had just kicked me really hard in the stomach," said Pope, who moved from Manalapan to Delray Beach in 1999.

UM facility leads research

Reeve was the catalyst for Pope's donation to the UM facility, called the Lois Pope LIFE Center. The wheelchair-bound Reeve attended the opening of the seven-story, 98,000-square-foot neurological research center in 2000. The center houses the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

"I realized because of his accident that research dollars had to go into neurological research for spinal cord injury, stroke and brain trauma," Pope said. "His celebrity brought it into focus. The research that is being conducted never would have been conducted without him."In addition to lobbying public and private organizations for research money, Reeve created the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation in 1999. That foundation, a resource center for people with paralysis, helps fund global research into treatments for spinal cord injury.

Reeve's work is likely to have a long-term impact on this research, said Dr. Dalton Deitrich, scientific director for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

"What he accomplished is going to help the Miami Project for many years because of his very strong support of the basic and clinical research we are conducting here," Deitrich said.

"No one's got a crystal ball so we don't know how his death will affect funding, but because of what he communicated to the general public and policy-makers, the world knows that this is an area we have to invest in and that the field is certainly moving forward," Deitrich said.
Fought for stem-cell Funding
Reeve also fought to increase insurance coverage for people with neurological injuries.
"It's important for that type of individual that they have long-term support and rehabilitation," Deitrich said.
Reeve was a vocal supporter of stem-cell research, an issue he helped inject into this year's presidential campaign. Some scientists believe stem-cell research may lead to treatments for a variety of illnesses, including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and heart disease.
In a speech in January at the Four Seasons Resort, Palm Beach, Reeve praised Israel for its stem-cell research and questioned funding limitations in the United States.
"Keep in mind that the first and foremost purpose of applied science is to relieve human suffering. Perhaps we've lost sight of that here at home," Reeve said.

In August 2001, President Bush restricted federal money for embryonic stem-cell research to colonies of cells previously extracted from human embryos, That move banned federal dollars for research using new embryos.
Reeve claimed that policy does not make sense.
"If [the embryos] are not frozen to make a sibling, they are discarded as medical waste. Why would it be immoral to save some of them from the garbage to use the cells for research?" Reeve asked.
Reeve was a tough but fair boss who had more energy than people with unrestricted mobility, said Diana De Rosa, a equestrian writer and photographer who helped coordinate Reeve's speaking engagements the past eight years.

De Rosa, of New York, said she had been busy the past couple of months helping Reeve prepare for a full schedule of events. Reeve recently completed directing The Brooke Ellison Story for A&E. Ellison became a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic at age 11 after a car struck her in 1990. She graduated from Harvard University in 2000. The movie is set to debut Oct. 25 on the cable channel.
"He was really looking forward to that. It is a great movie," De Rosa said. "He was happy keeping his hands in so many pies, fighting for people who are in wheelchairs to walk again."
Reeve was a hero to many people, Pope said.
"He was not the Superman we thought of in film, he was super in life," Pope said. "When people start walking, I'm going to say 'OK, Chris, you did this.'"