Here's what happened: Ricky James, who became paralyzed after a motocross accident, offered stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead his life savings, $200,000, towards new research Keirstead is launching on chronic spinal cord injuries. Read more here and here.
Keirstead emailed me today saying that he declined the donation:
The very evening that Ricky made that donation, I declined it.
I appreciate Ricky’s commitment to spinal cord injury research and his faith in the work being done in my laboratory at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UCI with regards to chronic spinal cord injury. I cannot however in good conscience accept Ricky’s generous gift offer to help fund the pre clinical work we are doing for chronic injuries. I explained to Ricky that these fund raisers are aimed at raising money to help people in his situation not totake from them.
I told Ricky that his real gift to SCI is his positive and upbeat persona and that it would mean just as much to me, my lab and the center if he would use it to spread awareness of the research that is being done, talk about the necessity of rehabilitation and good health. I have offered to work with Ricky and help him in his new role.
I
was surprised, actually, when I thought that Keirstead had accepted the donation, so this is kind of a relief. James deserves to hang on to his savings, especially since he lives in California where the median price of a home is nearly $600,000.
