Uniting and Fighting

Oh to have more time to write this blog. Today, however, I’m going to put all other tasks aside to share my thoughts about our fantastic 9th Annual Working 2 Walk Symposium. Each year I come away overwhelmed with impressions, emotions, and ideas, and 2014 was no different. But this year the sum of my feelings was decidedly more positive and optimistic than in the past.

For starters, our speakers from the research sector did an outstanding job of presenting their scientific work in terms the audience could understand. And . . . several shared therapies that are actually being performed on humans either in the clinic or in clinical studies. We’re starting to move on from rats to people. Kate Willette’s Live Blog from the conference recaps the presentations, and before too long we will have videos available at our online Video Library. Near the end of the conference, an attendee I had not yet met pulled me aside to say, “I’m a physician, and have been telling people for 25 years there is no hope. Now I know better.”

Secondly, we had our highest number ever of registered attendees, and of those our highest percentage of people living with paralysis. Collectively they brought an extraordinary level of enthusiasm, knowledge, and forward-looking energy to the proceedings. The Advocacy Breakout session lasted well into the evening, and the discussion continues today.

Marilyn Smith, Peter Wilderotter, and Kate Willette announce the launch of Kate’s new book.

The Rick Hansen Institute sends a team of scientists & advocates to the Symposium.

Ida Cahill talks with advocates after announcing Conquer Paralysis Now’s SCI Challenge.

Our absolutely amazing emcee, Barry Long from Pushing Boundaries.

What really sticks in my mind, though, is the sense of unity and common purpose that developed over the course of two days. Stakeholders from across the spinal cord injury spectrum came together with open hearts and inquiring minds, and spoke honestly and respectfully of their goals & challenges, strengths & weaknesses, as they renewed their commitment to fight for a future without paralysis.

As Unite 2 Fight Paralysis enters its 10th year of existence, it finally feels like we are starting to live up to our name. U2FP was built from the bottom up, created from the heart and strengthened by the blood and sweat of those who live the life; it has taken a while to gain credibility. After this year’s Symposium, I have renewed faith that together, united, we can win the fight.

Chase the Vision, Not the Money, Part 2

Last year I published a blog post titled “Chase the Vision, Not the Money“, written in the wake of revelations about the Susan G. Komen Foundation and its questionable funding decisions and political motives. A little over a year later, we find that these same dubious practices run rampant in the spinal cord injury community at the Rick Hansen Foundation.

David Baines, a respected reporter at the Vancouver Sun, scrutinized financial statements from RHF, statements that were released only after pressure from the newspaper. In his article, “Behind the Hansen Foundation“, Baines shares his discoveries, including:

• Exorbitant spending and huge losses incurred with last year’s 25-year anniversary celebration of the Man in Motion tour;
• A tax credit of $1.8 million issued to Rick Hansen for the donation of his naming rights;
• Excessive CEO (Hansen) compensation in the form of both salary and fringe benefits.

The list goes on, and I encourage you to read the full article. I was left feeling angry, disappointed, and ultimately sad to learn that this leading SCI charity, with its massive resources and name recognition, exhibits such poor financial stewardship of precious dollars.

Those of us in the SCI community should be thankful to Baines for this excellent job of reporting. We should also learn our lessons. This article illustrates once again the importance of doing one’s own due diligence when choosing which charitable organizations to support, a diligence to include:

• Educating yourself about research science;
• Examining where charities are investing the dollars supposedly allocated to research;
• Studying financial reports to determine how your donations are being spent.

Performing due diligence does not take a lot of time in the Internet age. The U2FP website is filled with resources to help beginners and veterans learn more about research science. In the U.S., nonprofits are required to make their tax returns available to the public, and most can be accessed at the Foundation Center‘s 990 Finder page. Charity Navigator provides ratings for charities in the U.S. with revenue over $500,000.

While the Hansen story is shocking and disturbing, perhaps the silver lining will be increased scrutiny from donors, both public and private, when contributing to charity. In the world of spinal cord injury, it is imperative that individuals make educated investments of valuable time and money, and that government increases its oversight of the funding it provides.

Giving Thanks

It’s been nearly 3 months since my last blog post. That’s what attending to the details of our annual Working 2 Walk Symposium will do. While I love the knowledge, the energy, and the connections generated by the conference, it’s nice to have the chance to drop back to a slower pace and take time for reflection.

Our family shares in a very special Thanksgiving tradition. When we first moved to the beautiful Hood River Valley at the base of Mt. Hood in Oregon, we quickly made friends with our neighbors on the Dee Highway. We celebrated our first Thanksgiving together in 1979. A core group of 5 families began to generate offspring, some moved away from the Dee Highway, but as the families grew and dispersed, the shared Thanksgiving dinner continued.

Mt. Hood towers over the Hood River Valley

This holiday is more revered by our family than the Christmas/Hanukkah period. We look forward to spending the day with our dearest friends who we have known for most of our lives. We have supported each other through life’s travails of death, divorce, and catastrophic injury. This year’s celebration is one of milestones:

• It was on Thanksgiving weekend 10 years ago that a flying wheel landed on top of my son’s pickup, and changed his and our lives forever. The day after his accident, two of the Dee Highway women drove 200 miles to be at our side in the hospital. Not coincidentally, they were also the midwives who delivered him at birth. Our friends provided the foundation of a support system that helped Noah navigate his way to a successful career as an attorney working for the EPA in San Francisco.
• After 31 consecutive years of organizing this annual get-together, the “matriarchs” decided it was time to pass on the responsibility. Last year’s event was led by the “patriarchs” (dads), and this year for the first time the 2nd generation takes over. Our son Isaac and his wife will host a gathering of 30, achieving a milestone that ensures our wonderful tradition will continue for years to come.

I write this story to remind myself of what we have to be thankful for, and also what a world of difference a support system makes when one suffers a spinal cord injury. It is often the determining factor in whether a survivor adjusts well to post-SCI life. Unfortunately, the strength of one’s support system is often left to chance.

At Working 2 Walk I met people who had traveled to the conference from great distances. Those with high-level quadriplegic injuries were accompanied by family members and/or dedicated assistants. As I said in my opening remarks, they were the lucky ones. For every SCI survivor who attended, there are thousands more who would never have the opportunity because they lack such a support system.

I am thankful for our lifelong friends and family who anchored my son’s support system. I am thankful for his self-determination that worked in tandem with his supporters to bring him where he is today. And I am thankful for the opportunity to work with members of the SCI community, who practice persistence, self-discipline, courage, and grace on a daily basis.

The Big Picture

For most of the summer I have been writing content and assisting with the design of our new U2FP website. At times tedious, at times a labor of love, this exercise triggered a lot of reflection on how we have grown and evolved in the 5 years since our last website remodel.

For me personally, my U2FP journey has been a hugely educational experience on many fronts:

• Understanding the science. This is an ongoing process, especially in such a complex field as neuroscience and regeneration. It’s not unlike learning about all the complications of a spinal cord injury. Slowly but surely we grasp the terminology, the sometimes grim realities, and finally a sense of what it will take to make things better.
• Assessing the landscape. Where does curing paralysis stand in the broader field of medical research and translation? When we identify good science, how do we attract investors and bring it to clinical trial? How can we make our cause a priority amongst such worthy competition? The answers to these questions change with the financial and political winds.
• Connecting with the community. This is far and away the most rewarding aspect of my job and the most energizing. It’s easy to get bogged down in the daily details of managing our programs – trying to catch up on emails, attending to the minutiae of organizing a conference, satisfying the various regulatory requirements. Just when I think that’s what my job is, I’ll hear from or read about or meet someone living with a spinal cord injury who is working so hard to make the very best out of a tough hand.

It’s a welcome reminder that in the end, our mission and our goals are about people. Less than 2 years after my son’s injury in 2002, I remember an “ah-ha” moment when I thought about all the extraordinary people we had met on the post-SCI journey. In order to make the best out of this life, you have to operate at a much higher level of purpose. You have to practice positive thinking on a daily basis; it’s so easy to falter.

For today, as we celebrate the launch of our new website, I want to take a moment to thank all of the people I have met along the way: for your courage, your determination, your perseverance, your grace, and for enriching my life.

Our Brother’s Keeper

Several years ago I read a book titled “His Brother’s Keeper” by Jonathan Weiner.  It’s the true story of one man’s race against time to try and find a cure for his brother, who was stricken with ALS at the age of 29.  The book is subtitled, “One Family’s Journey to the Edge of Medicine”.  Indeed, this is where we must travel if we’re going to solve the neurological puzzles of paralysis from spinal cord injury.

As a writer, Weiner has an amazing ability to explain the complexities of neuroscience in terms that can be readily understood by a lay reader.  He also does a terrific job of portraying the impatience and urgency that patients and family members feel when confronted with the glacial pace of advancing therapies from bench to bedside.  The story repeatedly raises the philosophical question of how best to advance science, and towards the end quotes Art Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania:

“Should the pace of medical research be determined by people desperately afflicted and their kin?  Is that the best way to move the science?  My argument would be no.  Just as it’s hard to do the best science when you’re heavily invested and have a financial interest in what’s going on, it’s very hard to interpret results when your vision is completely clouded up by love of your subject.”

Caplan’s point is well taken.  In our own SCI community we have seen many patients spend tens of thousands of dollars on unproven therapies that provide little or no benefit.  At times advocates have allowed passion to drive their research investments rather than reason.

On the other hand, to my knowledge Caplan is not living with a debilitating or life-threatening condition.  It’s frustrating and tiresome to sit in your wheelchair and listen to scientists, funders, and regulators counsel patience.  And of course we have the problem of our big-name charities losing sight of their initial purpose (see my previous post, “Chase the Vision, Not the Money”).

It’s time for the stakeholders in the SCI cure effort to keep watch over each other:

• For researchers to share their scientific results openly and honestly;
• For advocates to educate themselves about the science of regenerative medicine;
• For charities and patient advocacy organizations to operate with transparency and purpose;
• For regulators to consider the voice of the patient when evaluating risk and reward;
• For those living with SCI to speak up and put a face on spinal cord injury.

Kudos to Dr. Keith Tansey for writing so eloquently on this subject here.  I met Dr. Tansey at Working 2 Walk in 2011, and I know that he is a compassionate professional who understands the frustrations of those living with SCI.  He, too, believes that the science will advance more quickly and safely if we as a community work together, with ongoing, open dialogue and a sense that we are “Our Brother’s Keeper”.