NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dana Reeve, the widow of the late actor Christopher Reeve, has died of lung cancer at age 44, according to the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
A lifelong nonsmoker, Dana Reeve revealed she had the disease in August, less than a year after her husband's death. She died Monday night.
"We are all just so sad," foundation President Kathy Lewis said.
Lewis said that she had visited Reeve on Friday and that she was "strong and gracious and courageous."
Reeve was the chairwoman of the foundation, which funds research for new treatments for spinal cord injuries and works to improve the quality of life for people suffering from paralysis.
Her husband died in October 2004 at age 52 after falling into a coma. He had been paralyzed since a horseback riding accident in 1995.
Reeve was admired for the support and love she showed for her husband and for her assistance in his care.
She also was an actress and singer.
In January, she sang at the retirement ceremony for Mark Messier's New York Rangers jersey at Madison Square Garden.
"She sang beautifully. She looked lovely," said Kathie Lee Gifford, who interviewed Reeve at the event. "She was wearing a wig, of course. She had been through chemo and radiation. She was very thin, which you would expect for somebody going through what she was going through."
Gifford said she was surprised by the news because Reeve had seemed so healthy that night.
"I was absolutely stunned because she told me that day that the tumor was shrinking and she was the picture of optimism that night," Gifford said.
What sad news this is. She was such a shining example of what unconditional love is. I feel sorry for her son. In the span of under two years, he has lost his parents and his grandmother.
This truly is sad to here, but it's good at the same time, she doesn't have to live an agonizing life without her husband. I think part of the reason she expired so quickly was because Christopher Reeve died, when one goes, the other will soon follow.
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03-07-2006 06:25 PM
