Aspire's reaction to today's news story that a "new clinic will help the paralysed to walk" (The Times).

Aspire is excited by the reports today that Geoffrey Raisman intends to set up a clinic in London which “could eventually treat most types of spinal injury.”

However, every eight hours in the UK someone is paralysed by a spinal cord injury.  It can happen to anyone at any time and no one is prepared for how it will change their life.  Whilst welcoming the report, Aspire urges that the wider picture surrounding the realities of spinal cord injury are considered: Professor Raisman’s research, as well as the many other studies currently taking place, will require many more years of refinement and testing before we can be sure that this treatment will be viable for the 40,000 spinal cord injured people living in the UK.  Professor Raisman himself states: “I’m hoping in three to five years we’ll have two or three patients through.”

Until there is treatment available to make a genuine difference to the day to day lives of those 40,000 spinal cord injured people, Aspire will be there to provide the practical support and advice that gives those with spinal cord injuries the independence most of us take for granted.