Walking With Anthony's campaign to raise money for The CST Regeneration Project

In hopes to find a cure for better and faster healing and to raise awareness of spinal cord injuries, Walking With Anthony (www.walkingwithanthony.org) is starting an intensive campaign to raise money for The CST Regeneration Project. Led by the esteemed team of Dr. Oswald Steward from the Reeve-Irvine Research Center and Harvard University's Associate Professor of Neurology Zhigang He, The CST Regeneration Project provides groundbreaking findings and hope for those who are paralyzed due to injury to the spinal cord by focusing on axon and nerve renewal.

The University of California, Irvine's Reeve-Irvine Research Center, headed by prestigious Dr. Oswald Steward, in collaboration with Harvard University's Associate Professor of Neurology Zhigang He, has fundamentally changed the history of curing paralysis from spinal cord injury (SCI). Through a revolutionary discovery involving the PTEN gene, researchers have regenerated nerves in the damaged spinal cord of mice responsible for movement and sensation in the body. The two doctors believe that these results can be duplicated on the human body.

Walking With Anthony is inspired by Anthony Purcell, who was paralyzed after a diving accident in 2010, but can now stand with the help of a walker. With about 12,000 people falling victim to SCI each year, it is the organization's hope to increase SCI research and provide financial assistance to SCI victims. "Having seen the effects of spinal cord injury first-hand, I know how much this research and potential results would mean to the approximately 1.5 million people in the United States who are confined to a wheelchair," said Walking With Anthony Founder Micki Purcell. "We want to raise the money needed for this research to move forward at a faster pace so that people can start taking advantage of its findings."

"Dr. He and I are convinced that a major threshold has been crossed in our goal of regenerating connections in the injured spinal cord. We are working hard to translate the discoveries into a therapy that could restore motor function to people who have suffered spinal cord injuries. On behalf of the entire CST Regeneration Project team, we greatly appreciate the support from Walking with Anthony," said Dr. Oswald Steward, Director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.

Walking With Anthony, an organization dedicated to spinal cord injury rehabilitation, is proud to raise funds that will not only help fuel The CST Regeneration Project and its results, but will also provide a larger purpose to the charity's overarching goals.