Working 2 Walk Conference

Hello Everyone!

I am very excited that our Push to Walk trainer Tommy, my daughter Arianne (newly graduated as a DPT – Doctorate of Physical Therapy) and I will be attending this year’s Working 2 Walk conference in Irvine, CA. Marilyn Smith and the Unite 2 Fight Paralysis team does an awesome job of bringing together the best and brightest in the field of spinal cord injury research to update consumers and professionals on the current status of progress being made.

I attended the two previous conferences in Phoenix and Maryland, and am very happy to be going again this year. In addition to hearing speakers that include Jerry Silver, Frank Reynolds and Dr. Oswald Steward, I love connecting with friends around the country and meeting new friends, all of whom are involved in the SCI community.

The conference will conclude with a tour of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, which is sure to be exciting and informative! Tommy is especially interested in all things related to research and SCI, so this is sure to be a highlight of the trip.

Check out the website for the conference (www.working2walk.org), and follow the Care Cure posts that usually keep track of all the conference happenings (http://sci.rutgers.edu). I’ll give you a summary when we return.

Cynthia

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Boyd Melson Fighting for SCI Clinical Trials

Boyd Melson, representing Team Fight to Walk, will be boxing at Roseland Ballroom on Thursday, August 2. Boyd donates 100% of all winnings in the ring to Dr. Wise Young who is working tirelessly to bring clinical trials for spinal cord injuries to the U.S. You can order tickets for the fight here: www.teamfighttowalk.com. Come out and support a true champion for SCI, one who is literally fighting for all those with spinal cord injuries.

In support of Dr. Wise Young’s work, a few videos have been released by Boyd and his Team Fight to Walk Co-Founder, Christan Zaccagnino. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSS7fuJa61U&feature=youtube_gdata_player and also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HeuxO6VJFY&feature=relmfu. These relay their message much better than I ever could!

Support Boyd, support Just a Dollar Please (www.justadollarplease.org) and support the quest for a cure for spinal cord injuries! We ARE all in this together!

Cynthia

 

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Spinal Cord Injury Research for Cure

To build upon the information in my last post (and I hope you’ve checked the Unite 2 Fight Paralysis website at www.unite2fightparalysis.org), I wanted to share some additional information about other research that is going on right here in New Jersey.

If you have never met or listened to Dr. Wise Young and Dr. Patricia Morton at the WM Keck Center, SCI Project at Rutgers in Piscataway, I would suggest you try to attend their upcoming Open House this Friday, November 4. You can tour the lab and listen to Dr. Young’s updates on the latest news from the China SCINet Trials and his plans for U.S. trials in 2012. Go to   http://keck.rutgers.edu/calendar/calendar.html for the details on the event. Dr. Young also makes himself available after every presentation to answer your questions one on one. He is such a caring, compassionate person and a brilliant scientist – we are SO fortunate to have him right here in New Jersey! Take advantage of hearing him speak and take time to meet him and speak with him. I know you’ll be glad you did!

If I can answer any questions for you about the Open House, please ask!

Cynthia

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Working 2 Walk Conference

OK, I know it’s been a while – a very long while – since I’ve posted. No excuses, I know. Time to get back to business!

All of our Push to Walk trainers and I attended two wonderful, educational and informative days at the Working 2 Walk Conference in Rockville, Maryland. Many, many thanks to Marilyn Smith and her crew for organizing such a great forum for the SCI community.

They will be posting videos of all the presentations on their site as they are able to edit and upload them, so check their site on a regular basis to watch and learn what the scientists and researchers spoke about: www.unite2fightparalysis.org.

I personally found the workshop very enlightening and promising. There is so much going on in the world for SCI research, that I remain hopeful that it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of time. I am frustrated, like so many others who expressed their opinions, in the amount of time it takes to get clinical studies approved, but hopefully the SCI community can band together and work in an organized manner to help push things through the process in a  more timely fashion.

If you are interested in getting more involved in this aspect of the SCI world, I suggest you contact Marilyn Smith at Unite 2Fight Paralysis and let her know you’d like to join the cause. I’m sure she would appreciate hearing from you!

Cynthia

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Cancer’s Cruel Realities

Today, my favorite running slogan wasn’t making much sense to me. “Running is not with the legs or the mind; it is with the heart.” Well, my heart was very heavy today. Last night I received word that a dear friend’s brother was lost to cancer at a young age, far too young to die. I also received news that a long time school friend was diagnosed with a very rare, but aggressive form of cancer in January, and he is undergoing a chemo treatment and hopefully a stem cell treatment in the near future. Add to that another friend’s husband who is battling cancer himself at an advanced stage.

Every one of us has a family member or friend who has been touched with the disease. Some of you reading this have even been diagnosed yourselves. No one is immune from its effects; no one’s lives hasn’t been touched by it. It seems like the medical field has made so many gains against cancer, yet the number of people still struggling for their lives is so staggering.

Stories like the above are a reality check for me. There is so much sadness, grief and disbelief in the diagnosis of and battle with cancer. While I personally know of stories with happy endings, the end result is too often tragic – a person taken way too early, a family left behind, a child lost too young.

Even if we exercise and stay fit, eat wisely and live a healthy lifestyle, there are no guarantees. We can try to avoid those things known to cause cancer, but oftentimes, that isn’t even enough. It’s scary, isn’t it? I was awake a long time last night contemplating this awful disease, thinking about these three people and the others I know whose lives have been affected by cancer. So this morning’s run, with heavy heart, was for my friends mentioned above. With thoughts and prayers for strength and hope and successful treatments – may we all help each other in times of crisis and just be there for each other.

Hug your loved ones and enjoy life each and every day. As I am reminded each day by a print in my office: Live Well, Laugh Often and Love Much.

Cynthia

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