DEATH OF MR CHRISTOPHER REEVE AND SPINAL REPAIR RESEARCH

Early day motion 1748, tabled 14 October 2004 by Sue Doughty (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 59 members.

That this House notes with sadness the death of Christopher Reeve and pays tribute to the tremendous impact of his campaigning on the issue of spinal cord injury research that will benefit the 40,000 people in the UK who are paralysed to some degree as a result of spinal cord injury; welcomes the announcement by University College London of the establishment of the UK's first Spinal Repair Unit; believes that this will help bring in closer the prospect of the first clinical trials; commends the work of spinal Research, the UK's only charity exclusively funding research into spinal cord repair, for supporting research that makes human spinal repair trial feasible within two to three years; and calls on the government to acknowledge the improvements in the lifestyle of spinal injury victims and the decrease in dependency, with substantial savings to the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions, that could be achieved by spinal cord repair, and to give consideration for the provision of direct funding for a development programme leading to clinical trials.

Signatures by party: Labour 36, Liberal Democrat 13, Conservative 4, DUP 1, Independent 1, Labour/Co-operative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Scottish National Party 1, UUP 1.