Breakthroughs and Finish Lines
One morning last fall, armed with Twizzlers and confetti and cowbells, Reeve Foundation staff fanned out across New York City to cheer on a hundred Team Reeve members tackling a marathon in honor of loved ones and strangers living with spinal cord injury.
The day, a celebration of dedicated athletes and the 20th anniversary of Team Reeve itself, was like no other, and our raucous cheer squads didn’t hold back. Hearts full, we shouted ourselves hoarse.
It’s a memory I’m carrying into 2026 — a perfect snapshot of the Reeve Foundation, past and present, and a powerful reminder of a community’s determined spirit.
Over the past two decades, more than 1,500 people have joined Team Reeve events across the country, conquering cramping calves and steep hills and mid-race wheelchair repairs to cross the finish line. One by one, they’ve helped Team Reeve raise $13 million to advance spinal cord injury research and lead us toward this extraordinary moment.
A year ago, ONWARD Medical’s breakthrough ARC-EX System became the first FDA-cleared, non-invasive spinal cord stimulation therapy for people with spinal cord injury; today, it is available in more than 60 clinics across the country and has recently been approved for home use. And that’s just the beginning.
Treatments for paralysis are no longer a mirage, but a fixed point on a rapidly shrinking horizon. Researchers throughout the world are now immersed in transformative studies advancing the use of cell regeneration, epidural stimulation and brain-computer interface to restore function, increase independence and improve lives.
A new era has arrived.
In 2026, the Reeve Foundation will seek to strengthen every stage of the bench-to-bedside pipeline, building momentum across a field ablaze with possibility by supporting high-risk, high-reward research — paving the way for greater and wider financial investment necessary to move promising therapies forward. We’ll boost the success of future clinical trials by funding labs doing deep dives into gene therapy, regeneration and neuroprotection, and more. We’ll also continue to harness the success of SCI Ventures — the pioneering philanthropic fund co-founded by Reeve to accelerate the path from discovery to real-world impact for the next generation of treatments. In just the last year and a half, the evergreen fund has raised over $33 million and built a portfolio of eight early-stage companies leading such exciting work as drug development targeting neuropathic pain and bladder management; bringing a tongue-controlled mouth pad to market for people with high level injuries; and launching an AI platform to hunt for existing drugs with the hidden potential to treat spinal cord injury.
As the Reeve Foundation works to advance new scientific breakthroughs, we’re making sure our community’s priorities are driving the conversations around care and cure.
In the coming year, you’ll find us crisscrossing the country, visiting Abilities Expos, rehabilitation centers and veterans hospitals. We’ll gather for the 6th Annual Reeve Summit in Boston and attend research conferences in Miami and Washington, D.C. At each stop, we’ll listen to your concerns about health and life challenges, about your hopes for treatments to come; then, we’ll carry them to the FDA later this fall as we work to foster drug development efforts driven by community needs.
The progress we’ve waited for has finally arrived – but it didn’t just magically appear. It exists because people rise before dawn to tackle marathons for friends and strangers. It exists because the Reeve Foundation and families like your own fought for it, then and now. Decade by decade, mile by mile.
As we embrace a new year already bright with possibility, I’m grateful for the promise of what’s to come – and especially for the community making it all happen.
Maggie Goldberg
President and CEO, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
