The trustees of SPIRIT were very interested to learn of the research that has seen some restoration of functional arm movement to a man with complete paralysis.

Through a system of decoding brain signals and transmitting them to sensors in the arm, this has allowed Bill Kochevar (who was paralysed in a cycling accident) to regain some movement from his shoulders down into his hand and arm.

SPIRIT welcomes this type of research and it is vitally important to continue this work in the hope that one day it could potentially transform the lives of all spinal cord injured people in the future.

Although this research is a positive step forwards, SPIRIT recommend newly injured people receive the news cautiously. Until this research has being more thoroughly investigated and tried out on more people affected by spinal cord injury, we are a long way from demonstrating that this is a proven and effective treatment for spinal cord injured people.

Until such time as this is possible, SPIRIT recommends that everybody affected by spinal cord injury be they patients or family or friends should receive proper support and care in a specialist spinal injury centre and should also receive the support of other charitable organisations working in the UK to support those affected by spinal cord injury.