Spinal Cord Injury - The Statistics:
Unfortunately accidents will always happen and every day in the UK, four more people are admitted to hospital with a paralysing spinal cord injury. The tragic part is that many of the spinally injured are young with a lifetime of activity taken away from them. The injuries are often the result of ordinary, every-day activities. Yes, they do include car crashes, horse riding, motorcycling and sport - like rugby but also simple things like diving into a wave, trampolining or just falling, can easily result in paralysis. Make no mistake; we are all vulnerable irrespective of being fit and strong. It happened to P-A who was in peak physical condition from regular training in the gym and on the field. These injured young people, many of them just children, will spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair left to cope with a whole range of potential health problems, like chest infections, pressure sores, bowel, bladder and sexual difficulties. That is unless we continue to fund the recent medical progress. Continued funding of work leading to clinical trials is now vital, so that treatments can be made readily available to help them.

Research and Development:
The death of Christopher Reeve again brought to mind the tragedy of spinal cord injury (SCI). He sent P-A a personal letter and picture, highlighting the importance of keeping hope for the future. Christopher worked relentlessly to raise the profile of SCI and was a powerful advocate of embryonic stem cell research in the US, believing this to be the key to a cure for paralysis.

However, British scientists, after more than thirty years’ work are pursuing even more promising routes based on ground breaking discoveries.
With your help, at a number of UK scientific centres, work is progressing on several late stage pioneering studies which are pulling together the final pieces of the repair puzzle in preparation for clinical application. In one, scientists and surgeons are proving that highly specialised cells at the back of the nose, normally responsible for conveying our sense of smell to the brain, can be isolated and grown successfully outside the body.  Preclinical experiments with these cells have already shown great promise. A significant hurdle will have been overcome if such cells can be safely isolated and grown in sufficient quantity to implant in patients. In another approach a clinical tool kit has been developed that enables detection of even the smallest changes in sensation and movement during clinical trials.  Such a toolkit will ensure identification of the best treatments or combination of treatments for safe use and as quickly as possible. These indicate just some of the work in progress that with your help we are able to fund. When the trials are finalised over the next few years, it will be possible to start repairing spinal cord injury in NHS Hospitals and around the world.

We are not talking about miracle cures but about small improvements making a huge difference to the lives of paralysed people. To understand this, it is important to appreciate that even limited regeneration across short distances can provide access to healthy undamaged nerves. This would mean that someone with a high level neck injury and unable to breathe without a ventilator, like PA (and Christopher Reeve), would be able to recover their breathing. Someone who can use only their arms, but not their hands currently needs the help of a carer for everything. So for them, to regain hand function would be a life-changing step forward. A person who is paralysed but able to use his or her arms and hands, can live a fully independent life and even go back to work.

Future Prospects:
As the trials progress and the test results are gathered, further developments will enable improved sensation and mobility. Until recently, a child with a spinal cord injury, at say 5 years of age, would normally have a full 70 year life-span, paralysed and living in a wheelchair. That can hardly be an exciting prospect. But this is about to change, Clinical trials  are underway and the future for SCI patients is looking far more positive. We believe that in time, the results of this work will improve the lives of paralysed men, women and children and their families. Scientists have told us that the results from these projects may very well lead to solutions that will conquer other Central Nervous problems including; Nerve Blindness, Nerve Deafness, Stroke, Alzheimer's Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson's.

The Charity:
It was these trials that P-A had hoped to be part of so in memory of Paul-André, Trust PA is working to enable a future where lifetime paralysis is no longer inevitable. Scientists have told us that they are confident of success as long as the funding continues. The funding required amounts to between
£1-2 million per year, over the coming years to make these treatments available - so every penny counts and this is why we need your help please. By supporting Trust PA you ensure this important goal happens sooner. Trust PA was registered as a charity in July 2002 and has continued to annually give at least £50,000 to fund these projects. At Trust PA we have no employees or paid staff and to keep administration costs to a bare minimum many costs are covered by our Trustees. This ensures that any money donated or raised goes directly to fund the solution. The prospect of a positive future where lifelong paralysis will no longer be inevitability motivates us to keep moving forward.