Despite enormous expenses related to his paralysis, Reeve is determined to be financially self-sufficient. A widespread rumor that his close friend, Robin Williams, had promised to pay all his medical bills was publicly denied by both Williams and Reeve. Less than a year after his injury, Reeve began to accept invitations for speaking engagements. Traveling with a team of aides and nurses he has crisscrossed the country, speaking at the Peter Lowe Success Seminars, at universities, benefits, and at many functions relating to disability issues. About how he does his speeches, Reeve's publicist Maggie Friedman, at the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, said: "He speaks off the cuff, using no notes or teleprompter and most of the time he does not even dictate his thoughts to an assistant." Reeve narrated an Emmy Award winning documentary for HBO called which sensitively told the stories of a half-dozen disabled people and also hosted a Canadian documentary about spinal cord injury called The Toughest Break. He returned to acting with a small but pivotol role in the CBS TV-movie A Step Toward Tomorrow in 1996, and that same year Reeve made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed HBO film In the Gloaming starring his good friend Glenn Close. Gloaming went on to receive 5 Emmy nominations and was the most honored film at the Cable ACE Awards in 1997, winning awards in 4 of the 6 categories it was nominated including best "Dramatic or Theatrical Special". Dana Reeve describes In the Gloaming as "a godsend for Chris." She adds, "there's such a difference in his outlook, his health, his overall sense of well-being when he's working at what he loves, which is creative work - directing a movie, or acting in one. It completely revitalizes him and feeds him." At these times "his health is at an all-time high, his blood gases are good, he seems to cure skin wounds faster, he sleeps better, he looks better. It's noticeable - it's like being in love."
Reeve's activism since becoming spinal cord injured originally involved bringing more scientists into Neurology to more quickly discover a cure, along with doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a government agency in the executive branch that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His experiences with his own insurance company and, particularly, the experiences of other patients he had met at Kessler led him to push for legislation that would raise the limit on catastrophic injury health coverage from $1 million to $10 million. Reeve accepted the positions of Chairman of the American Paralysis Association and Vice Chairman of the National Organization on Disability. In partnership with philanthropist Joan Irvine Smith, he founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center in California and he created the Christopher Reeve Foundation in 1996 to raise research money and provide grants to local agencies which focus on quality of life for the disabled. Reeve's star power, along with marketing for research dollars, are reasons why spinal cord injury research has been given greater attention and more money allocated to the cause. In 2000 Newsweek noted that, "Thanks to Christopher Reeve, spinal-cord injuries-which affect 250,000 Americans-have won great attention, while mass killers like lung cancer and stroke attract relatively less." Reeve has used the contacts he had made in Washington during his years of advocacy work to lead the fight to increase funding for spinal cord injury research which, despite recent breakthroughs by scientists, had previously received inadequate financial support. In May 1996, during a U.S. presidential election year, Reeve personally lobbied the Clintons in the Oval Office of the White House where they promised him an additional $10 million, that never materialized, to be allocated to the NIH for spinal cord injury research. His efforts in both the private and public sectors have met with considerable success both in raising money and awareness of the needs and desires of disabled people.
Modifications are now complete on the Westchester County home Reeve shares with Dana and Will. Matthew and Alexandra are with them when their school schedules allow. The family continues its tradition of spending summers at the vacation home in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Reeve says: "This accident has been difficult for all of us. But it hasn't frightened anybody away. We all miss the activities. My daughter, Alexandra, and I loved to ride together. My son, Will, and I would play piano and sing together. Matthew and I loved to play tennis. We all used to sail together. I'd be kidding you if I said I didn't miss that. Ultimately, you have to accept that being together is more important than doing together."
In the years after his accident, Christopher Reeve has gradually regained sensation in parts of his body--notably down the spine, in his left leg, and areas of the left arm. But he remains dependent on a ventilator to breathe and unable to move any part of his body below the shoulders. His condition has stabilized and in early 1998, after the taping of a television special to benefit his foundation, Reeve's wife, Dana, described him as "very healthy and very busy". His compelling autobiography, , was released in April 1998 and quickly hit the bestseller lists. "Writing the book," Reeve says, "was one of the highlights of my life, before and after the accident." Seven months later, critics praised his talent and courage when Reeve reclaimed his leading-man status by starring in an updated version of for ABC.
Reeve continues to schedule many speaking engagements and ambitiously raise money for spinal cord injury research while looking to the future with characteristic enthusiasm saying: "My spinal cord is ready below the injury. I'm realistically optimistic. I don't plan to spend the rest of my life like this." Four hours of physical therapy a day has made possible Reeve recovering the movement of an index finger, wrist and thumb. Lobbying for highly controversial research using human embryos for embryonic stem cell research and cloning has become central to Reeve over more conventional research advancing like axon regeneration and nerve growth. Reeve says, "...I have a creative life and a political life, and they're both equally important." Reeve's oldest son, Matthew Exton Reeve, entered Brown University in 1999 majoring in art semiotics and in May 2002 graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Matthew is also documenting his father's progress in recovery for three television specials he directed premiering in 2002 and 2003 with the first special airing around Reeve's 50th birthday. Reeve's daughter Alexandra, in 2001, entered Yale University in Connecticut and joined the Yale Polo Squad. Creatively, Reeve has in the works movie projects to direct for ABC television on the inspirational lives of Jeffrey Galli, Brooke Ellison, and Robert McCrum. He also was the Creative Consultant for Freedom: A History of US, a 16-part miniseries on public television about American freedom that is set to begin airing in early 2003. On May 3, 2002 the U.S. government opened the National Health Promotion and Information Center for People With Paralysis, known as the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center through a non-competitive cooperative agreement awarded to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. CRPF was designated in 2000 to establish the center through a line item in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget and officially named the recipient of the cooperative agreement in May 2001. The official purpose of the center is to develop and expand national efforts for the prevention of secondary conditions and complications, and to improve outcomes and the quality of life for people living with paralysis from multiple causes.
