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I slipped on the black ice, I fell backwards, my neck snapped,
and I couldn't get up off the ground.
- Hey, that's easy. - [inaudible]
My injury happened when I was giving birth to my second daughter
through an epidural.
The doctor had a drug issue.
(German) Spinal cord injury can affect anybody,
and it happens in a split second.
Life is never the same again.
The injury is about more than just not walking.
I mean, that's the obvious thing that everyone sees, I think.
Transferring, showering, little things that, just, you did,
and were not a big deal to do, become sort of extraordinary.
(German) Worldwide there are 3 million people
affected by this serious injury.
And every year there are 130,000 new injuries.
Wings for Life was founded in July 2004
by Heinz Kinigadner and Didi Mateschitz,
about one year after the tragic accident
of Hannes Kinigadner.
We contacted every possible person
and found out that there were several projects
that seemed very promising
but not ready for clinical use.
For us it was clear
that we had to spread hope by setting up an institution
that would help develop those projects further.
The goal of Wings for Life is very clear:
We want to make spinal cord injury curable.
The only way we can do that is by supporting medical research.
They're funding some very cutting-edge projects
that have real potential to discover new knowledge
or to translate that knowledge into potential clinical treatments.
(German) Wings for Life supports projects
that have to meet three criteria.
They must be innovative, fulfill certain quality standards,
and at least in the middle-term,
offer something that is useful for patients with spinal cord injuries.
Last year we received 142 research proposals
from scientists around the world,
which shows us how important our work in this field is.
As a foundation we are called upon
to supply the necessary funding.
It's a crucial moment.
Putting all our efforts into our donor-funded research:
That's the main thing a foundation can do
in order to work effectively and also remain credible.
There's many pieces and they all have value,
and they need to come together.
(German) Wings for Life can actually really help
to fund projects from centers
and good research institutions.
The eventual goal is shared by almost every project,
but nobody can predict today that this is the one route to take
to get to that goal, and we need to pursue many routes
so that one or two or three eventually succeed
and we make a difference for the people
who have spinal cord injury.
Science is hope, for sure.
It's serving a community that may not be great in numbers,
but they're great in need.
(German) And that's exactly the hope, the vision we have for Wings for Life,
that there is a way to one day repair these things.