Carl Hagan is a paraplegic (complete paralysis of the lower half of the body including both legs, usually caused by damage to the spinal cord) since 2001. Confinement to a wheelchair couldn’t curb his spirits. Rather it has inspired him to press forward this week on a mission that few of us would dare. Hagan intends to roll himself in a manually-powered wheelchair from Ocala to the West Coast to raise awareness and money for stem cell research.

“I want people to know the only thing I can’t do is walk,” he said. “It’s important I do it, important to everyone in my situation.”

The grand journey will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, when Hagan leaves from Interstate 75 to head north on U.S. 27 toward Tallahassee. He will eventually turn west onto Interstate 10 and follow it to California. The 3,300-mile trek should take 85 days, wheeling 40 miles a day and allowing 10 days for bad weather. If he makes it he will set a world record.

It all began on Feb. 26, 2001 when a water taxi traveling about 20 knots had slammed into the boat that morning before the passengers had finished breakfast. The collision killed the boat’s owner and left Hagan’s back broken in two places, paralyzing him from midriff down.

“You can’t imagine your whole life changing in a couple of seconds,” he said. “I was sitting in the chair at the back of the boat. I never saw it coming.”

At Tampa General Hospital he saw paralysed children struggling with the same problems he had.

“That really hit home,” he said. “I’m 50; I could go this way the rest of my life with this. But it hurts me that the children can’t be on the playground.”

About the same time, Hagan said, he also learned about the intense lobbying by actor Christopher Reeve for more support of stem cell research to cure paralysis and other disorders of the central nervous system. Reeve, known to millions as “Superman” in the movies, turned activist after he broke his neck in a 1995 horse-riding accident that left him paralysed.

When Reeve died in 2004 at age 52 from a systemic infection followed by cardiac arrest, Hagan said, “that’s when I really knew it was time to go.”

To succeed, he must avoid both the fierce heat of summer and freeze of winter, which leaves only two windows for departing: now, or early spring. He is ready now.

The issue of stem cell research has become an increasingly political one, with many scientists and senators lobbying for more funding of research using embryonic cells and conservatives, including President George W. Bush, balking on dubious “moral” grounds.

Hagan said he is interested only in research using therapeutic stem cells, meaning nonembryonic cells derived from adults or umbilical cords. He is not interested in turning his trip into a political statement, he said, although he acknowledges the inevitable overtones. He believes the issue will resurface prominently in the next presidential election. So do I.

For now his mind is on the open road. “I think I will do it,” he said. “In my heart, I know I will do it.”

I hope he succeeds and so does the push to fund and progress stem cell research. Lots of life depend on it.

Source: Ocala.com