Dana Reeve... Dead

[I'm Gone 60]

she was an actress, but she was also the chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation has awarded $53 million in scientific research grants and provided $6.5 million in quality-of-life grants to nonprofit organizations helping those struck by “anything that impairs mobility, including stroke, ALS, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.” New fund-raising efforts include a Superman dog tag and a children’s book, Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again.

The Reeves also created the Christopher and Dana Reeve Resource Center in 2002 as a program within the Foundation after reading the letters that poured in asking for help. “I wanted there to be one place you could contact and ask, ‘What do I do now?’ and find answers,” she explains.

Dana Reeves

Well I say that was somewhat self-serving. Reeves gets paralyzed so he starts a foundation to research paralysis, so who benefits if a cure is found. Like Michael J. Fox helping with Parkinsons research. Still say she didn't do anything to generate all this attention.

[Marilyn. 340]

huh? whats up people?

Dana stood by her husband after his accident and took care of him and supported him... she deserves a lot of admiration for that..

she never came across as "look at me, aren't I great for taking care of my sick husband" she seemed very humble about everything....

[Cristy 4]

They were married only 3 yrs when he had his accident, their whole world changed. The she got sick. It is so sad. She was a remarkable woman full of strength, courage, dignity and a great sense of humor.

[Marilyn. 340]

I always thought marriage was a partnership....

I don't think it matters if the couple is famous or not... they work together... or they should...

I think christopher and dana worked as a team...

Edited March 8, 2006 by MarilynP

[I'm Gone 60]

huh? whats up people?

Dana stood by her husband after his accident and took care of him and supported him... she deserves a lot of admiration for that..

she never came across as "look at me, aren't I great for taking care of my sick husband" she seemed very humble about everything....

She didn't kick her husband to the curb when he got sick, so now she's a saint for doing what she was supposed to do. Give me a break.

[Cristy 4]

she was an actress, but she was also the chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation has awarded $53 million in scientific research grants and provided $6.5 million in quality-of-life grants to nonprofit organizations helping those struck by “anything that impairs mobility, including stroke, ALS, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.” New fund-raising efforts include a Superman dog tag and a children’s book, Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again.

The Reeves also created the Christopher and Dana Reeve Resource Center in 2002 as a program within the Foundation after reading the letters that poured in asking for help. “I wanted there to be one place you could contact and ask, ‘What do I do now?’ and find answers,” she explains.

Dana Reeves

Well I say that was somewhat self-serving. Reeves gets paralyzed so he starts a foundation to research paralysis, so who benefits if a cure is found. Like Michael J. Fox helping with Parkinsons research. Still say she didn't do anything to generate all this attention.

Would you start a foundation and push for new treatments at the highest levels if it happened to you?

A lot of people would either leave him or just fade away quietly. They both showed such strength through it all.

[Marilyn. 340]

she is famous in her own way too but I am sure that got overshadowed because of who her husband was....

Her many singing and acting credits included appearances on television, where she had featured roles on Law & Order and All My Children, among others. She performed at theatres on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at numerous regional theatres. In 2000 she co-hosted a live daily talk show for women on the Lifetime Network. She sang the title song on the soundtrack of the HBO drama, In the Gloaming directed by her husband. She also wrote and published, Carepackages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends. In 2004, she was performing in the Broadway-bound play Brooklyn Boy in California when she had to rush home to reach her husband's bedside before he died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Reeve

[Peggy 1]

huh? whats up people?

Dana stood by her husband after his accident and took care of him and supported him... she deserves a lot of admiration for that..

she never came across as "look at me, aren't I great for taking care of my sick husband" she seemed very humble about everything....

She didn't kick her husband to the curb when he got sick, so now she's a saint for doing what she was supposed to do. Give me a break.

Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed today.

Why is it really bothering you so much that she is getting so much attention. Shouldnt really matter to you whether she is or not. Be kind. They are well know people that have done alot of good things. Shouldnt we remember all the good that they both have done?

Edited March 8, 2006 by pink_roses

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

sad indeed... another great lady to leave this planet... she is with good company... Mother Theresa & Lady Diana... may they all rest in peace!

How can you put Lady Diana and Dana Reeves in the same catagory as Mother Theresa. What did Lady Diana ever do except marry Prince Charles and do photo ops holding poor children. Died in a chauffer driven Mercedes with her billionare boyfriend running from photographers, rough life.

Charity work

Starting in the mid-to-late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became well known for her support of charity projects, and is credited with considerable influence for her campaigns against the use of landmines and helping the victims of AIDS.

AIDS

In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was the first high-profile celebrity to be photographed knowingly touching a person infected with the HIV virus. Her contribution to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers was summarised in December 2001 by Bill Clinton at the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS', when he said:

In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. She showed the world that people with AIDS deserve no isolation, but compassion and kindness. It helped change world opinion, and gave hope to people with AIDS with an outcome of saved lives of people at risk.

Landmines

Perhaps her most widely publicised charity appearance was her visit to Angola in January 1997, when, serving as an International Red Cross VIP volunteer [1], she visited landmine survivors in hospitals, toured de-mining projects run by the HALO Trust, and attended mine awareness education classes about the dangers of mines immediately surrounding homes and villages.

The pictures of Diana touring a minefield, in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket, were seen worldwide. (In fact, mine-clearance experts had already cleared the pre-planned walk that Diana took wearing the protective equipment.) In August that year, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after the conflict has finished.

She is widely acclaimed[2] for her influence on the signing by the governments of the UK and other nations of the Ottawa Treaty in December 1997, after her death, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:

All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines. [3]

As of January 2005, Diana's legacy on landmines remained unfulfilled. The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States) to sign the Ottawa Treaty forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".

Diana, Princess of Wales

she used her power and influence for good

The media has a tendency to mythologise dead celebrities in much the same way that they mythologise the living. Still a tragedy for the family - what are the odds of that?

I never understood why Princess Diana became such a mythologised figure after she died. Someone who was born into privilege, married the heir to the throne (who is himself a bit of a ####### by all accounts), had some affairs, some mental disorders, all of which she personally revealed to the UK media in the most salacious manner possible.

Personally I found all the hoo-ha at her burial rather overblown. As a Brit I felt that most of the people who were mourning her were foreign tourists, never really understood all the sentiment at the funeral. Much of it left me cold I'm afraid.

I'm not a monarchist, as you can probably tell IMO noone should automatically get on the gravy train merely by virtue of birth.. They should actually DO something to represent the country. Diana certainly put herself out there in that regard through her charitable work, a complete contrast to the likes of Prince Edward who failed miserably to make anything of himself and ended up taking handouts from mummy.

That said, if I remember rightly, when Diana started campaigning about landmines - pretty much every country in the western world had already signed up to a voluntary treaty banning / severely restricting their use, with the one notable exception of the United States, who unless I'm much mistaken still make use of them today. The legislation that was put through after Diana died merely put into law, what many countries were already doing. A positive step, but hardly the groundbreaking thing it was made out to be.

Diana's death totally overshadowed Mother Theresa's (who died within weeks of Diana), a woman who had devoted her ENTIRE LIFE to charitable work.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Fishdude