THANKSGIVING

More Team Reeve Coverage!

Visit media.nycmarathon.org for more Videos

(You can skip to about 2:20 to hear Peter Wilderotter, CEO of the Reeve Foundation and Matthew Reeve.)

(Love the shout-out to Marine Corps Marathon runners at about 10:20.)

Did I say I have no future marathon plans?

Well, I just got back from the Team Reeve's NYC Marathon send-off lunch, and I just think I want to do it again :) It really is a race like no other, and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is a foundation like no other. It was a very inspiring afternoon, and I'm so glad to see the press coverage Matthew Reeve and Team Reeve are getting this year:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

5th Time's a Charm

Ok, now that the Series is tied, here's the Marine Corps Marathon scoop:

My chip didn't get read at the start! Luis and I started together and there was a 4:02 difference in his chip time. So I'm taking my clock time, 3:59:58 (still under 4 hours :-D), subtracting 4:02, and going with 3:55:56.... That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I have emailed the Marines to see if they'll go with it too.

So now that that's cleared up: HOLY CRAP! So much to report, so little ability to organize my thoughts. So in random order:

• 3:55:56!!!!! I broke 4 hours, took 10 minutes off my previous time, and negative splitted (ran 2nd half faster than 1st half). Coach Danny really knows what he's doing!


• Running faster is definitely harder. I am way much more sore than I was after NYC last year.


• I fell! All the way down, rolled, popped back up, and kept going. The course was very crowded all the way through the first half of the race, and I was caught up in the 4 hour pace group. Someone came up from behind, clipped my heel, and down I went. No pictures this time.


• My mom and my aunt were excellent cheerleaders. They made it to all their appointed places on time, had their sign ready, and jumped up and down and screamed like pro's. It was awesome.


• The Marines were so. freaking. cool. They cheered for us; they let us know what was up ahead; they told which tables had water, which had Powerade; they rocked.


• I squatted for the first time in a race situation. I was well shielded from any possible onlookers. It wasn't so bad. Paula Radcliffe did it, so why can't I?


• We broke $4,000 for our fundraising, and that makes a grand total of over $20,000 over the past 3 years! THANK YOU!!!!


• I passed Luis for the 3rd year in a row. But he keeps reminding me that he holds the family record at 3:54. Is he trying to stoke my competitive fire?!


• Blue Powerade = nasty


• I may never eat pasta again. Enough already.


• The pictures are really not flattering. I was so focused, I didn't see any of the cameras, and I just look like I'm in pain in all of the pictures.


• I also missed the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Capitol...That's the trade-off for PR-ing.


• I'm pretty sure I could actually run faster. The most challenging part for me was managing my anxiety. I had never run 8:50 - 9:00's so early in a marathon, and I was so worried about crashing. It never happened :)


• I truly have no future marathon plans at this point...I'm sure I'll do it again though!


• Right now, I'm looking forward to cheering on lots of friends who are running NYC on Sunday, including fellow Team Reeve-mates and TNT-ers, sleeping late, and continuing to eat everything in sight (except pasta).

P.S.

We're still awaiting some last minute donations, but our Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation fundraising total will most certainly top $4,000 this time around. THANK YOU, EVERYONE for your generous support! None of this - not the training, not the racing, not the fundraising- would be possible without you.

I'd also like to point out that this brings the grand total to more than $20,000 over the past 3 years. Impressive. Impressive that we have such a fabulous network of supporters who believe in us and who believe in the mission of the Reeve Foundation. As Christopher Reeve once said, “I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them."

P.P.S. There's still time to make your donation!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday present to myself: a donation to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, of course! Perhaps you'll consider something similar? :)

TEAM MANZO

It's official.

How's this for a wedding cake?

Can't see it?

It's...The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation logo!

So it wasn't actually a wedding cake. You already know the weddings happened in February and March. However, my parents threw us a beautiful backyard bash yesterday to celebrate with our extended family. I had told them that any checks Luis and I might receive would go towards our fundraising, and they surprised us with this fabulous cake. It tasted amazing too:

Thanks to all our family for celebrating with us and for welcoming Luis so warmly! We love you!

Party's over, or has it just begun?

Back to work this week, and it's busier than ever. How is that a teacher works more in the summer than during the school year???

Anyway, I also officially kicked off training yesterday with an easy loop around the park. 16 weeks until Marine Corp Marathon 2009. The hotel is already booked! I hope to be posting fundraising information soon too. We're making it a family affair this year - with Luis joining in the Team Reeve fun! Here's last year's video (from the NYC marathon) in case you've forgotten what all the excitement is about:
(I'm at 1:23, 1:55, 3:44)

Matthew Reeve is running the New York City Marathon!

So exciting!!! It'll be Matthew's first marathon, and I think he's up for the challenge. But, of course it's the year I decide to do Marine Corps. Oh well, at least I'll get to cheer him on, and we all know that's much more fun than running! Check out Matthew's blog, Greta Van Susteren's blog, an article from People, and the Reeve Foundation's official press release for more information.

Miss the big announcement?

All of the press coverage is here: http://communities.kintera.org/Reeve/blogs/daily_dose/archive/2009/04/21/51329.aspx

And the GMA interview with Alexandra Reeve Givens is here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7388727

And I'm not telling - you have to read and watch to find out :)

Special Announcement From the Reeve Foundation on Tuesday

From the Reeve Foundation blog, Daily Dose:

The Foundation is holding a press conference Tuesday (April 21st) at 10:00 am ET at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. I'm still not at liberty to tell you what the news is, but it will change the way people look at paralysis and spinal cord injuries. You can go online to watch at 10:00. http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=57681 The event will last less than an hour, but we think you will be surprised and excited by the news.

You can get a preview by tuning into Good Morning America in the 8:00 am ET hour. Christopher Reeve's daughter Alexandra Reeve Givens will be interviewed.

Oooh...secret surpises - exciting!

CHRISTOPHER AND DANA REEVE PARALYSIS ACT BECOMES LAW!

The first comprehensive legislation addressing the needs of Americans living with paralysis. At last. Watch the video here (skip ahead to 14:45 for the good stuff).

Matthew Reeve, son of Christopher Reeve, was there for the signing and shook hands with President Obama. An historic day that means so much to so many.

Check it out:

A short and sweet EMVORB shout-out on The Reeve Foundatation website! Thanks, Rob!

Here's a wedding day shot of Luis, Dad, and me!

Just in case you missed it:

Yes, I'm still running...

After a few weeks off, I'm easing back into training mode. It's time to start getting ready for...The Brooklyn Half Marathon. I still have nightmares about last year's race, but the timing's right. It's good base-building before I start training for Marine Corps so I'm sucking it up and trying again. This year, I'm doing a little private training with Coach Danny of Jack Rabbit fame.

Yes, I said Marine Corps! As in the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington DC. Luis and I will be fundraising and running with Team Reeve this year, and I pretty much can't wait! The race isn't until October, so that's a lot of waiting, but the fundraising ball is already rolling! In lieu of wedding gifts, Luis and I have asked friends and family to consider making a donation to The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation! Be sure to indicate that your donation is "In Honor Dawn and Luis Manzo tying the knot" or something on those lines!

And just in case you watch The Hills and are worried about whether a Mexico marriage is legal or not, Luis and I made our union official at my parent's house in Yardley, Pa. None other than the Mayor of Yardley (and my childhood dentist!) performed the ceremony, which was simple, perfect, and most definitely legal!

Larry King Live at 9 pm on CNN

Watch it tonight!

"Guest host, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will interview Alexandra Reeve Givens and Reeve Foundation Chairman of the Board of Directors Peter Kiernan about President Obama’s executive order and its implications. Alexandra will discuss her father’s legacy and how she felt hearing the President deliver such an eloquent tribute to her father and stepmother."

F.D.A. Approves a Stem Cell Trial

WARNING: Long post with no pictures. But it's important.
Thanks to Rayne for passing it along!

By Rob Waters
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Geron Corp. won approval from U.S.regulators to begin the first human test of embryonic stem cells,treating people who have spinal cord injuries.The test will attempt to restore movement to paralyzed people by injecting neurons made from embryonic cells to the siteof injury. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today lifted a hold placed on the research last May after Geron persuaded regulators the procedure is likely to be safe, said Thomas Okarma, chief executive officer of the Menlo Park, California-based company.

While thousands of patients around the world have been treated with adult stem cells and have shown mixed results, no humans have been given cells derived from embryos in an approved trial. Geron’s test will provide the first look at whether embryonic stem cells can regenerate.

“This goes beyond pills and scalpels,” Okarma said in a telephone interview yesterday. “This is a different kind of innovation. This is a single injection of living cells that may restore function to a tissue damaged by injury.” Susan Cruzan, a spokeswoman for the FDA, confirmed in a telephone interview yesterday that the agency will let Geronconduct preliminary safety trials.

Geron rose by $1.09, or 21 percent, to $6.31 at 9:33 a.m.New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. An earlier gain of 26 percent today was the biggest in 3 ½ years. The shares have risen 9.9 percent in the 12 months through yesterday.

Other Trials Possible
The FDA’s action may help pave the way for other companies to get permission to start their own trials, said Christopher Thomas Scott, director of Stanford University’s Stem Cells in Society program.

“Geron is a path-breaking company in getting the first stem-cell trial,” Scott said in a telephone interview yesterday.“The message is that FDA now feels comfortable with the measure of risk the first trial will contain for the first few patients.”

Two other U.S. companies, Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Los Angeles, and closely held Novocell Inc., based in San Diego, are using embryonic stem cells to develop therapies and are working to begin clinical trials.

The chances that the cell treatment will harm patients are much smaller than the chance the technique won’t help them, said Joseph DiMasi, an economist with the Tufts University Center forthe Study of Drug Development in Boston. Less than one biotechnology drug out of three that enter clinical trials is approved, DiMasi said. That risk of failure also applies to Geron, which has spent $45 million preparing an FDA submission on the stem-cell treatment.

Stem Cells Powerful
Embryonic stem cells, derived from embryos just days after conception, are able to form any of the roughly 210 cell types in the human body. The treatment has been politically and ethically charged since its discovery 11 years ago. Because the extraction of the cells leads to the destruction of human embryos, former President George W. Bush barred federal funding for stem-cell colonies created after 2001.

President Barack Obama, like many Democrats and some Republicans in Congress, backs such research, as does his pick for science adviser, Thomas P. Holdren. Bush’s limitation led to reduced support for academic and corporate research on embryonic stem cells. Obama said during his campaign that he favored overturning the restriction.

No Academic Data
Bush’s policy discouraged research and made it harder for Geron to persuade the FDA that the stem cells were safe and had the potential to help patients, Okarma said.“Normally when the FDA gets an application for something brand new, they consult the published literature to find confirmation of the claims in the application,” Okarma said. In this case, the lack of research funding meant that academic scientists had published nothing on the particular cell types that Geron is trying.

“The only publications on these cells and spinal cord injury come from Geron,” he said. The company’s early research showed the cells have enabled rats with damaged spines to walk. Most spinal cord injuries bruise, rather than sever, thecord, damaging the long fibers of nerve cells known as axons. This damage disrupts the flow of electrical signals from thebrain to other parts of the body needed to control movement, resulting in paralysis. Geron has shown in 24 studies involving1,977 rats and mice that stem cells help reconstitute a layer of insulating material known as myelin that protects the axons,Okarma said.

Looking for Safety, Benefit
In the first phase of the research, Geron will treat eight to 10 patients with spinal cord injuries that left no function below the site of the injury. Researchers will inject the patients’ spines with a type of nerve cell that makes another known as an oligodendrocyte. Geron has learned to make oligodendrocytes in large quantities from embryonic stem cells.

While the main focus of the initial study will be to ensure that the cells don’t cause harm, the researchers will also look for signs of improvement in the patients. If the cells prove safe in the first group of patients, Geron will seek FDA clearance to increase the dose and later to treat less severely injured patients, Okarma said.

The company will now seek approval from the ethics boards of seven medical centers around the U.S. to begin conducting the study with the goal of beginning to treat patients this summer, Okarma said. While he declined to estimate how long it might take to complete all the studies and seek FDA clearance to market the therapy, he predicted that early success would speed the process.“We are treating a desperate patient population that has no hope of any recovery whatsoever,” he said. “If we see efficacyin these early studies, the excitement will be hard to overestimate.” If the treatment works, “this will be fast-tracked and I don’t think we’ll be needing thousands of patients.”

The NY Times has more about the political timing of the approval.

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation responds here. Watch Peter Kiernan, Chairman of the Board on Good Morning America here.

Follow up to "Senate Passes Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act"

I wanted to share a comment that post received:

With the new administration, many things are looking brighter for the SCI community - hopefully this will soon be a curable, or at least somewhat a Less devastating condition. - If you have the time, please have a look at me and my friends' petition.

Kind regards.

Thomas Borghus

It takes two seconds, give or take a minute or two.

Senate Passes Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act

From the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation website:

"The Senate passage of the first national public health bill to directly address paralysis is a landmark in the fight to develop cures and improve the quality of life for those living with paralysis," said Peter T. Wilderotter, president and CEO, Reeve Foundation. "Advancements are made every day in spinal cord injury research, but the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act will speed progress and make research efforts more efficient."

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act will improve the quality of life for people living with paralysis and mobility impairments from any cause – stroke, ALS, spinal cord injuries and others. It encourages coordination of research to prevent redundancies and hasten discovery of better treatments and cures, as well as to improve the daily lives for those living with paralysis. The Act has three components that support and enhance paralysis research, rehabilitation, and quality of life programs:

• Paralysis Research - Expands research on paralysis at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This will encourage collaborative research by connecting scientists conducting similar work to further enhance understanding and speed discovery of better treatments and cures.
  
• Paralysis Rehabilitation and Care - Builds on research to enhance daily function for people with paralysis, including a Clinical Trials Network, to measure effectiveness of certain rehabilitation tactics and encouraging shared findings on paralysis to improve rehabilitation.
  
• Improving Quality of Life for Persons with Paralysis and Other Physical Disabilities - Works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve the quality of life and long-term health status of persons with paralysis and other physical disabilities.

This has been a long time coming. A lot of people worked very hard for a very long time to get this passed in the Senate. Thank you, thank you, thank you.