Two charities will share in proceeds from tickets they sell for Scottsdale Fashion Week VIP shows Nov. 6-9.

The Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona will sell "supertickets," good for three VIP shows on designated days.

In the online Journal of Biology, Dr. Stephen Davies, an associate professor of neurosurgery reports his research team has produced two types of spinal cord support cells called astrocytes ("star" cells) from the same embryo-derived stem cell-like cells called Glial Restricted Precursor cells (GRPs) that have remarkable effects on the injured spinal cord.

Published in the September 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, these findings help explain how physical therapy advances recovery, and support the use of rehabilitation therapies that specifically target impaired limbs in people with brain and spinal cord injuries.

Manipulating embryo-derived stem cells before transplanting them may hold the key to optimizing stem cell technologies for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans. Research published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology, may lead to cell based therapies for victims of paralysis to recover the use of their bodies without the risk of transplant induced pain syndromes.

Dr. Stephen Davies, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, reported that in collaboration with researchers at the University of Rochester, NY his research team has transplanted two types of the major support cells of the brain and spinal cord, cells called astrocytes.

A PARALYSED Warminster woman is appealing for people abseil 70ft down a medieval castle for charity.

Victoria Holton was paralysed in a parachuting accident in 2002 and has since become a trustee of the Southern Spinal Injuries Unit (SSIT), which supports people with spinal cord injuries living in the southwest.

The abseil will take place at Lulworth Castle in Dorset on Sunday November 2. All funds from the charity event will go towards SSIT.

Ben Stear struggles to hold his cell phone in his hands; his fingers just won't cooperate.

Dialing a number, text messaging and listening to his iPod — activities once second nature for the 15-year-old — have become a major struggle.

Confined to a wheelchair, Ben is fighting to regain the use of his arms and legs after a hockey injury in June left him with a broken neck and fractured vertebra.

More and more people with severe disabilities are seeking to take part in social activities while living independently at home. Yet not much progress has been made since the law to promote their independence went into effect in fiscal 2006.

Among such people is Akira Kinoshita, 21, who suffered a neck injury during a judo practice session when he was a high school student. Kinoshita started living in an apartment in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, with his mother in April. Paralyzed from the neck down, he relies on an artificial respirator. But he is studying hard to enter university while receiving nursing care from a home-visit helper as well as his mother.

Everett, who has since made a remarkable recovery, is scheduled to be present to receive the Professional Football Writers of America's Halas Award, which goes to the individual in the NFL who overcame the most adversity to succeed last season.

Doctors disagree on whether the controversial treatment played a role in the recovery of the Buffalo Bills tight end

Kevin Everett's playing career ended in the first game of the 2007 NFL season. At the beginning of the second quarter, the third-year Buffalo Bills tight end swooped in to tackle Denver Broncos kick returner Domenik Hixon.

Their helmets collided. Everett, 26, stiffened and fell to the ground. As medics attended to the injured player, thousands of Bills fans crammed into Ralph Wilson Stadium, and the 50-plus members of the team's playing and coaching staff waited for a signal from the fallen player—a thumb's up or a wave.

But there was nothing.

Sense of adventure, sense of humor survived crippling injury

Mike 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

DOCTORS feared Michael Wakeman would never walk again after he crashed a billy-cart into a car.

The 13-year-old had completely dislocated his spine, compressing a disc and squashing the nerves supplying the muscles to his legs, bladder, bowel and genitals.

Michael was riding the old cart down a road in Mount Colah in Sydney's north six weeks ago when he hit a parked car and spun 180 degrees, slamming his back into the side of the car.

Accident damages Gainesville man's body but not his spirit

Normal for him used to be enjoying his retirement from AT&T with his wife, Lynn, ministering to kids at Hopewell Baptist Church, playing with his grandchildren and taking lunchtime jogs near his home off Tanners Mill Road.

All that changed on the afternoon of May 7 when a car driven by an alleged drunken driver plowed into him as he jogged along the side of the road, sending him flying. The impact cracked his ribs, collapsed a lung, tore ligaments in his knee and broke his back.

Andrew Commons is determined to walk again - utterly determined. As well as following an intensive daily exercise regime, he's also undergone courses of stem cell treatment for the spinal cord injury that has confined him to a wheelchair.

Just back from Beijing Tiantan Puhua Hospital, Commons says it's too early to tell whether several injections of stem cells into his spine have worked, but he's optimistic.

"I've now got a bit of movement in my left big toe, which is pretty good. They say if you can move your toes, you'll walk at some stage, so obviously I'm pretty hopeful about that - if the stem cells do have a benefit, with luck I'll be on my legs."

The new vehicle includes an automatic ramp that will provide quick and easy access for individuals who use wheelchairs, motorized scooters and other mobility devices.

It also changed the life of his brother, Brian. It set him on a mission to cycle across Canada.

Hard-driving Bay State disabled veterans brought home gold, silver and bronze medals after a week of fierce competion during the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Omaha, Neb.

According to Kim Byers, spokeswoman for the event, 500 military-veterans-turned-athletes - including at least a dozen from Massachusetts - challenged themselves and each other in what has become the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world.

“You feel like it’s a true Olympic event. Everybody is supporting you, and they want you to succeed,” said Rosemary Cahill, 53, of Yarmouthport.

Anderson will forever regret not strapping on a seat belt that day in Idaho. But at 21, she's found joy in life, good friends and even a chance of escaping her wheelchair.

Hope first came days after the crash, when she realized she could roll over. Three years later, after intensive daily therapy, Anderson's right leg moved.

Matt Hampson might well have been in Auckland this summer, playing for the England rugby team as they took on New Zealand. After all, many of his former team-mates were.

But Matt was instead at home in Rutland, confined to a wheelchair, paralysed from the neck down, unable to move any part of his body save for his head, his breathing dependent on a ventilator.

The horrific accident that transformed Matt's life happened nearly three years ago when, while training with his international colleagues in Northampton, the scrum collapsed and the former prop forward, who played for the Leicester Tigers and the England Under 21 side, suffered a dislocated neck and a trapped spinal cord.

According to Patricia Valenza, a physical therapist at Sunnyview, pressure mapping is a thin mat, measuring approximately 18 by 18 inches that has 256 sensors for sensing pressure at different parts of the sitting surface.

“When a patient sits on the mat, the sensors read pressure at individual locations on the thighs and buttocks,” said Valenza. “This data is transferred to a computer, where we can analyze it and determine where pressure sores may occur.”