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Will Reeve, 24, is running for Team Reeve and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in Sunday’s 26.2 mile race. The Foundation advances quality of life and works to discovering cures for spinal cord injury. Christopher Reeve, who played “Superman” in five films between 1978-87. He suffered a spinal cord injury during an equestrian event in 1995, and died in 2004 at age 52.
His wife and Will’s mother, Dana, died in 2006 after a bout with lung cancer. The native of Teaneck, N.J., married Reeve in 1992. The family lived in Pound Ridge, and Will lived with a family in Bedford after the death of his parents.
On his fundraising page, Will Reeve said he previously considered running the marathon. “I wanted to do it,’’ Will wrote. “I felt that I should do it. But I didn’t believe I could do it.”
That attitude, however, runs contrary to Team Reeve’s mindset, he said. “That attitude has no place around here,’’ he said. “What sort of example was I, the son of Christopher and Dane Reeve, proud Foundation ambassador and board member, settling by making excuses. There are six million people in the United States living with paralysis. Any one of them would do anything to take even a step across the starting line in a marathon.”
Will Reeve now lives in New York City, and works for ESPN. The New York Post wrote a story on his run.
“I want to see if I can do this,’’ Reeves said. “I know I’m not the first person to run a marathon, and I certainly won’t be the first person to cross the finish line this year, but this experience is going to be special for me. I’m looking forward to the training, especially on the hard days when the weather is brutal and the miles seem longer and I most feel like quitting, making more excuses, and doing something, anything, else for the Foundation.
“It is on those days when I will see and hear my parents,’’ he added. “I will see my dad rising at dawn for hours of physical therapy and training, all in service of a tiny flame of hope that he might walk again, grinding, sweating, bending but never breaking. I will see my mom, resolute in her commitment to all people and things, integrity and reliability personified. I will see them, and I will keep running. And I will see you at the finish line, because I'm running for you, too.”
Reeve set a fundraising goal of $35,000. Click here to support his run for Team Reeve.
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