TEAM Christopher Reeve is busy. There are medical supplies to pack, last-minute checks on crucial equipment to complete and visas for a party of 10, including four nurses and three aides, to sort out. "Now that the holidays have passed, this is the next big event on our calendar. We're getting very excited," Reeve's wife, Dana, told The Weekend Australian. In two weeks, Reeve will fly to Australia on only his second flight outside the US -- his first on a commercial flight -- since he was paralysed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. His arrival at Sydney airport will bring down the curtain on a 10-month behind-the-scenes production featuring players such as an Australian family friend armed with an A4 envelope, who acted as a go-between, a politician who wouldn't hear of failure, the managing director of Qantas and the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute. It's a plot full of twists and turns that would appeal to the Emmy-winning actor, who became famous defying gravity as a celluloid Superman in 1978 and more famous as a 193cm superman in a wheelchair after regaining sensation and movement in the majority of his body, despite predictions that he would never be able to feel or move below his head. On January 27, Reeve will deliver the keynote address - a speech Mrs Reeve says he will make from mental notes - at a forum hosted by NSW Premier Bob Carr that brings together the world's best and brightest to discuss how to improve the quality of life for disabled people, their families and carers. He also will be the star attraction at a fundraiser on January 28. Unknowingly, Reeve set the ball rolling on March 20 last year at the end of a Today Show interview in which he discussed stem-cell research legislation -- a topic close to his heart. "My best wishes to everybody in Australia, and I particularly applaud the efforts of the leaders in NSW who want to do it right and have had the courage to come and speak about what they think the Government should do," he said from New York. "So my hat's off to them and I do hope that the Australian Government will make the correct decision." Reeve's interest in the debate in Australia surprised the Premier's Office, and when the interview transcript was handed to Carr, an equally passionate advocate of stem-cell research, he asked for a letter to be sent inviting Reeve to Australia. There was no response from Reeve's office but Carr, who was worried that Australia's best scientists would go overseas if the research were stopped, continued the ultimately successful campaign to convince Australian parliamentarians. In the meantime, the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, which receives funding from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, was thinking of ways to enlist Reeve for a fundraiser. The executive director Ian McLoskey sent the Premier a letter asking for his help to make the case. They had a head start -- a member of the institute was a friend of Gabbi Cusack, a close friend of the Reeves who worked as a nanny to their child, Will, in 1992 when she was 23 and he was a baby. On Saturday, September 7, last year Cusack, who was leaving the next day for the US to help celebrate Reeve's 50th birthday on September 25, sat down for a coffee at Sydney's Centennial Park kiosk with a senior Carr adviser and a top institute executive. Carr's adviser had an ordinary A4 envelope to give to Cusack containing another letter to Reeve, the Premier's articles on stem-cell research and a video of his presentation to the federal parliament on August 18 alongside carers for the disabled and scientists. Cusack, who until then was not quite sure why she had been asked to the meeting, put the envelope in her backpack and "gave it to Chris when I got there". It was no big deal to Cusack, who is in regular contact with the Reeves and describes them as "an important part of my life". "I've been selling the merits of Australia for years to them because when I went over there in 1992 I was like you've got to come back and have a holiday here ... They've only ever seen photos." Mrs Reeve credits Cusack with planting "the seed" for the Reeves' trip to Australia -- "one of those places that you just want to go see". "She got us in touch with the right people and it went from there," Mrs Reeve said. "She was visiting us and she said you should think about coming to Australia, and we said that would be nice some day. She said 'well, this spinal cord injury trust is having a fundraiser'. We would have conversations at the dinner table and this idea turned into a reality." Via email, Cusack and Carr's office had been arranging a phone call between Reeve and the Premier on October 3. A call expected to last 10 to 15 minutes continued for almost an hour. Reeve impressed the Premier, who ended the call more confident that he would come. The question was how. Reeve had always flown privately and this was no ordinary trip. The Premier's people put out feelers to Qantas, which flies from New York to Sydney via Los Angeles. The Premier called Geoff Dixon, Qantas' managing director. On Thursday, November 28, in a late afternoon meeting at Governor Macquarie Tower, the Premier got the word from Qantas that it would foot the bill for the first-class seats -- worth about $US14,000 ($24,300) each -- and take care of any special arrangements. Three days later -- more than eight months after first trying to contact Reeve -- the Premier announced that Reeve would be the guest of honour at the two-day conference at Darling Harbour. The Reeves would not have even contemplated a trip of this duration three years ago but his first trip overseas to England early in 2000 gave them the confidence to consider longer trips. "He is also so much healthier. He gets healthier every year. The 26-hour flight was a huge consideration but we are breaking it up (by spending a night in LA)," Mrs Reeve said. "Then we've got our fingers crossed. Thirteen hours is the longest any of us have flown. For Chris, it's important to make sure he has weight shifts. Sitting in the one place for such a long time can really create havoc with skin. "He's got great circulation, his bone density is terrific. He should be fine." Mrs Reeve said the physical therapy that her husband had undergone in the past seven years meant "his body is as healthy as it can possibly be". He goes to the pool once a week, takes to a bike with electrical stimulation three times a week and on days off from the bike undergoes passive electrical stimulation. He works on breathing every day before dinner. Aside from his nurses, "the main thing was that we had to make sure that all of the equipment, and any kind of emergency equipment, would work on the flight". Without an in-exsufflator -- or "coughilator", as Mrs Reeve calls it -- "working on the plane he couldn't go. There's no way. He gets coughed every couple of hours. "We have a preliminary go-ahead but if we get on the plane and it doesn't work. Abort! Abort! It's like trying to fly the plane without the engine." Asked about concerns in some quarters over the $US75,000 cost to NSW taxpayers, Mrs Reeve was sympathetic. "I completely understand grumblings about spending money for someone to come over to a country -- why not spend it directly? -- but the problem is in our experience is the money doesn't get spent directly," she said. "I do know that when he shows up places he tends to raise a lot of money. "We are very lucky he has a voice that many people who are disabled in this country don't have, unfortunately. Both of us take that as a responsibility and a duty." www.nsw.gov.au/spinalforum Source news.com ###