Spinal Research has helped make scientific and medical history since 1980. It is determined to continue to do so.
In 1980 it took an act of faith to believe that spinal cord injury could ever be repaired. Yet fundraisers, supporters and scientists never let doubt get in the way of their work. Now, scientific achievements, have built a rational foundation for everyone’s hopes. Research has opened a number of routes that, as they converge, are leading the way to the reversal of paralysis in human beings.
Spinal Research was founded in 1980 by Stewart Yesner, a young lawyer who had been paralysed in a car accident in Zambia in 1974. He now lives in Australia, but remains a key member of the charity’s Board of Trustees.
The charity was originally named the International Spinal Research Trust, but has been known as Spinal Research since the mid-1990s.
Fundraising activities were launched in 1981, and a major boost came with £60,000 from an appeal made by Round Table UK. Since then, more than £17 million has been raised to fund pioneering research into spinal cord repair.
The charity held its first scientific conference in 1983, bringing together scientists from Britain and around the world. Spinal Research’s scientific network now includes many of the world’s leading figures and institutions in the field of neuroscience.
A landmark fundraising event took place in 1986 in the form of the Great British Push. Almost half a million pounds was raised by three paraplegics, who propelled their wheelchairs from John O’Groats to Land’s End, the two most distant points of Great Britain. Sir Jimmy Savile, a great fundraiser for the world-famous Stoke Mandeville Spinal Unit, introduced the Great British Pushers to Diana, Princess of Wales. She became the charity’s Royal Patron in 1989.
Fundraising grew apace in the 1990s, for instance through the work of the Runners Network, founded in 1993, and with the help of legacies, such as the one that established the Nathalie Rose Barr Sponsored Studentships.
Recent years have seen the development of close relationships with a number of major charitable trusts, with the corporate sector and with local and national government in the UK. Spinal Research has also enjoyed considerable fundraising success with campaigns that involve special-interest groups, for instance the equestrian community (Saddle-Up) and motorcyclists (2003 Spine Ride).
The charity now aims to launch clinical trials in the coming years. To put this pioneering initiative in place, Spinal Research needs to raise at least £2 million a year between 2005 and 2008.
