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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2004
Superman's Mom Helps Launch Living Proof for Senior Citizens
Barbara Johnson is delighting in the active life she was denied in her
youth. At 72, she is a competitive rower with an impressive list of
awards for sculling and sweep-oar rowing in eights, fours and singles.
The pride of her medal collection is a first place in the prestigious
Head of the Charles® Regatta in Boston.
Johnson's strength, stamina, and courage are remarkable – but
not altogether surprising considering that she is Superman’s mother.
That is, the real-life mom of late Superman actor Christopher Reeve. And
Johnson’s story – one of hope for the future – is
the centerpiece of Living Proof, a national educational campaign for
senior citizens.
Johnson’s life was profoundly and forever changed
when Christopher Reeve fell from his horse during an equestrian competition.
The accident made him a quadriplegic. It also transformed him from American
movie idol to the nation's leading advocate for neurological and spinal
cord research. And, it has moved his mother to tell her own story publicly,
for the first time, in an effort to encourage other senior citizens
to do the same.
As a youngster growing up in New York and Connecticut during the depression,
Johnson was exposed to tuberculosis. Her nurse died of the contagious
respiratory disease and Johnson was sent away for several months to
a sanatorium in South Carolina. When she returned she began to experience
asthma attacks, and again she was sent away from her family, this time
to a school in Arizona where she lived for four years. The separation
from her family was agonizing for her.
In high school and college, Johnson often was left out because of her
illness. "I couldn't run or play field hockey with the other girls,”
recalls Johnson. Cold affected me. And the slightest illness would go
to my lungs. But I always tried to participate."
Medicine finally caught up with Johnson's determination with the introduction
of asthma inhalers 30 years ago. Today, many new medicines are available
to help control this increasingly prevalent respiratory illness.
"I'm telling my story not just for me or for others who suffer
from respiratory illnesses,” explains Johnson. I'm hopeful for
the future of medicine because of research. And I am well aware of the
need for research. Yes, I'm sharing my story for myself and for Chris,
but also for my father who died of Alzheimer's and for my son with diabetes
and for the members of my extended family who have suffered from Lou
Gehrig's (ALS) and Parkinson's. All of these stories should be told
and I encourage other seniors to share their experiences through Living
Proof."
Says Living Proof spokesperson Alan Dittrich: "Senior citizens
are living proof of the value of medical research. Their lives are testaments
to the pain and suffering so many have endured. But their experiences
can also teach us how medicine has changed, offering health and hope
to so many."
Senior citizens are invited to participate in the Living Proof project
online at www.Living-Proof.us
or by sending their stories in the mail to: Living Proof, PO Box 360,
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0360. Stories will be archived and available to
the public on the website.
Living Proof is an educational history campaign
designed to document the amazing role medical research has played in
the lives of all Americans.
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