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You’ve got to hand it to them
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 Paraplegics cross country on special cycles to raise funds for medical research
Les McLaughlin, one of four paraplegic men
crossing Canada on hand cycles, demonstrates the vehicle that makes it
all possible. The men are hoping to collect 30 cents from every
Canadian for regenerative nerve research they hope will eventually help
paraplegics walk again.
"Paralyzed rats are now able to walk
because of this research, and I believe some day I’ll walk again and so
will anyone who has a spinal cord injury," he said.
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Where Are They Now- Mike Utley
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 Sense of adventure, sense of humor survived crippling injuryMike Utley went deaf in his right ear while having dinner in
January. He was robbed of equilibrium and made so sick he had to seek a
doctor the next day. He traded partial hearing for a nonstop fire alarm
that still reverberates in his head.
This was nothing more than piling on for the former Washington State
and Detroit Lions football player, left a quadriplegic nearly 17 years
ago when the offensive guard suffered a spinal cord injury while
slammed to the ground on a pass-blocking play.
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Research aims to put tongues in control of devices
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 The tireless tongue already controls taste and
speech, helps kiss and swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to
add one more ability to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer
control pad. Georgia Tech researchers believe
a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's
mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard - and tongue into
the key that manipulates it all. "You could
have full control over your environment by just being able to move your
tongue," said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor who
leads the team's research.
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Spine injury breakthrough
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Scientists funded by Masterton's CatWalk Trust have developed a
breakthrough gel that has the potential to improve healing in spinal
cord damage repair.
"This is huge we're very excited the money we spent is looking like
it's going to be extremely beneficial we're buzzing," trust founder
Catriona Williams said.
A former international equestrian representative, Mrs Williams founded
the CatWalk Trust in 2005 after a fall from a horse in 2002 left her a
C6-7 tetraplegic. The group funds research looking for a cure for
spinal cord injuries.
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Two Oakdale men headed to Beijing for paralympics
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 Jon Rydberg and Dan James will be representing their hometown of Oakdale and their country by heading to Beijing this September to compete in the U.S. Paralympics.
This is Rydberg's second Paralympics and he will be competing in singles and doubles wheelchair tennis.
"It's one of the coolest things you can do," Rydberg said. "Representing your country, your state, everything like that. It's a whole package deal."
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Reeve Foundation Recruits Distinguished Stem-Cell Neurobiologist
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The Salk Institute's Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D. - to its International Research Consort
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation today announced it has expanded the work of its International Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury
to include a focus on the study of stem cells in injury and repair.
Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D., of The Salk Institute, who has demonstrated
expertise in stem cell biology and spinal cord expertise, has joined the Consortium as a Principal Investigator.
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Family, friends rally to help chef fight back from injury
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 It happened in an instant. Dave Hartung was driving home from work the
day after Christmas when a car darted from the shoulder of Interstate
97 and across two lanes to reach a ramp to U.S. 50.
The vehicle smashed his car. While describing the crash to state
troopers, Hartung now realizes, he was in shock. He went home to Severn
and only in a few hours did he realize he was in pain, he said.
At the hospital, doctors found that the accident had crushed four
vertebrae in Hartung's spine and partially severed his spinal cord.
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Ex-quadriplegic bikes to Tulsa
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 In a stop on a nationwide tour, he encourages others with disabilities.
Wiggling a single toe was the impossible goal Aaron Baker dreamed about achieving in 1999.
Nine years later and more than 1,500 miles into his trek, Baker is pedaling a specially made, three-wheel bicycle across the country to show others what it means to beat the impossible.
"I'm crazy enough to ride a bicycle all the way here from San Francisco," Baker said.
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Special needs players showcase their shots
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 The sun was shining, the balls were flying and the chairs were rolling yesterday at the Fanshawe Golf Course Parkside Nine.
It was the eighth annual Madame Lise Thibault Golf Tournament, a
three-person-per-team golf scramble for people with disabilities.
The city donates the course -- the first in North America for people with disabilities -- for the day, Olizarevitch said.
The course is flat and the greens are built on firm soil to allow a wheelchair to drive over them, he said.
"There's no sand traps, no water, all on a 10-acre parcel of land."
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Homes for Our Troops to build house for paralyzed Marine
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 Marine Joshua
Hoffman was paralyzed by a sniper's bullet in Iraq in January 2007. At
left is his mother, Reed City resident Hazel Hoffman, and fiancee,
Heather Lovell pictured during a day out from a Virginia veterans
hospital in 2007.
Heather Lovell knows how her fiance, injured veteran
Josh Hoffman, feels about moving to a home that's to be built
especially to meet his needs.
"He's so excited. He doesn't even have to say anything. You can see it in his face," Lovell said.
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August 2008
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