Reeve widow is battling lung cancer

The wife of Superman star Christopher Reeve has been diagnosed with lung cancer, only ten months after her husband's death.

Dana Reeve nursed the actor for nine years after he was paralysed in a horseriding accident.

But now she is facing her own fight for life without him.

In a statement, the 44-year-old singer said the memory of Reeve, whose fight against paralysis inspired other victims, was keeping her going.

'I have recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, and am currently undergoing treatment,' she said. 'I have an excellent team of physicians and we are optimistic about my prognosis.

'Now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge.

'As always, I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities.'

Since the actor's death aged 52 last year after complications from an infection, his wife has succeeded her husband as chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which campaigns for medical research.

Speculation that she had health problems surfaced when she cancelled a recent appearance at an event in Washington DC - where she was to join Michael J Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, in showing her support for a bill to lift restrictions on stem cell research - citing 'family reasons'.

Mrs Reeve, who is not a smoker, is being supported by her 13-year-old son Will and a loyal band of friends.

The diagnosis comes at the end of a heartbreaking few months for the singer.

She lost her husband in October, then this year her 71-yearold mother Helen died as a result of complications from surgery for ovarian cancer.

For Mrs Reeve, lung cancer is an especially cruel blow because it will have a devastating effect on her singing career, which had begun to blossom after she began performing regularly at Feinstein's, a club within New York's upmarket Regency Hotel.

Since the death of her husband - who played Superman in five films but had been confined to a wheelchair since his horseriding accident in 1995 - Mrs Reeve has taken over his mantle as a vociferous advocate of stem cell research.

Such scientific investigation is hampered in the United States by strict regulations which all but prohibit the use of stem cells, in order to appease America's powerful religious lobby.

Since becoming the chairman of the foundation named after her husband, Mrs Reeve has sought to highlight the cause by issuing American military-style 'dog tags', bearing the Superman logo and the motto 'Go Forward'.