Christopher Reeve's widow dies of cancer

Christopher Reeve (left) and wife Dana in 2003. File picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Admirers of Christopher Reeve, the actor who braved paralysis and pain for nine years following a near-fatal riding accident, were plunged into mourning again yesterday following the early death of his widow, Dana.

Dana Reeve, who was just 44 and a non-smoker, had been suffering from lung cancer.

Having poured heart and soul into caring for her husband, who died in October 2004, she then took over the presidency of his foundation, which helps victims of severe spinal cord injuries come to terms with their greatly reduced quality of life and recurring medical problems.

After she was diagnosed with cancer last summer, she vowed to take inspiration from the courage demonstrated by her late husband and expressed hope that she could beat back the disease.

It was not to be, however, and she died at a branch of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering cancer hospital yesterday.

The chief executive of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, Kathy Lewis, issued a statement mourning a woman "whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us."

Her death leaves the Reeve's 13-year-old son Will an orphan.

Dana Reeve also had two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.

Christopher Reeve, perhaps best known for playing Superman on the big screen, was a popular actor during the heyday of his career.

He earned a whole new cluster of admirers after he fell off his horse in 1995 and used his personal misfortune to try to educate and benefit others.

Dana Morosini started out as a singer and actress who met Reeve during a summer theatre season in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

After the accident, she devoted herself fully to his care and the causes he espoused.

"She was a woman with an incredible heart who really put herself out there to help people with disabilities and especially those who are care-givers - something she knew a lot about," Lewis told the Associated Press.

Four months ago, at a fund-raising gala for the foundation, Reeve looked healthy in a long, formal gown and said she was responding well to treatment and her tumor was shrinking.

"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said then.

"My prognosis looks better all the time." Asked how she kept her spirits up, Reeve said she "had a great model."

"I was married to a man who never gave up," she said.

A year ago, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society. A society vice-president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Reeve "has shown strength and courage in the face of tremendous adversity."

Roughly 10-15 per cent of people diagnosed with lung cancer have never lit a cigarette. Non-smoking women are twice as likely to contract the disease as non-smoking men.

- INDEPENDENT