Spina Bifida: Notable People Born With It

I wanted to show that Spina Bifida does not discriminate in any way. So here is a list of some of the most notable celebrities from the past and in the present that have been affected by Spina Bifida. 

• Tanni Grey-Thompson - Welsh Paralympic athlete, member of British House of Lords and television presenter. She is considered to be one of the most successful disabled athletes in the UK. She graduated from Loughborough University in 1991 with a BA (Hons) degree in Politics and Social Administration. Her autobiography Seize the Day was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001.

• Blaine Harrison - lead singer, keyboards, rhythm guitarist and former drummer of the British band Mystery Jets.  In 2009 He became a patron of the Attitude is Everything Charity, who work with live music venues in the UK to make gigs accessible for people with disabilities. Blaine was quoted in an interview with the BBC saying, "When we first got together as a band we decided that we wouldn't make my disability an issue, the same way we didn't make a big deal of my dad being in the band. We weren't interested in gimmicks... We wanted people to read our lyrics and listen to our music." Blaine has said playing live as someone with a physical impairment is sometimes hard work, seeing as many modern facilities still do not have the means to cater for disabled people. He has made it clear that Mystery Jets will only play in venues who have made an effort to cater to people with disabilities and refrain from playing in small, crowded pubs.

• Rene Kirby - US actor in films such as Shallow Hal and Stuck on You and the American Television series Carnivàle in a 2005 episode. 

• John Mellencamp -  American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. His latest album, No Better Than This, was released on August 17, 2010 to widespread critical acclaim.

• Karin Muraszko - chair of Department of Neurosurgery at University of Michigan, first woman appointed to such a position in the US. Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery.She is the medical director of "Project Shunt", the neurosurgery component of an annual medical mission by the Michigan, Ohio, chapter of the medical charity "Healing the Children" to Guatemala, which has one of the highest incidences of spina bifida in the world.In 2005 the Association of Women Surgeons awarded her the Nina Starr Braunwald Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of women in surgery".

• Jeffrey Tate - British conductor. as of the spring of 2008, appointed as the next chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra

• Hank Williams - (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) US country music singer-songwriter.  Regarded as one of the most significant country music artists, Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one. he developed a serious problem with alcohol, morphine, and other painkillers prescribed for him to ease the severe back pain caused by his spina bifida. Father to Hank Williams, Jr who is also a US country music singer-songwriter. 

• Lucinda Williams -  American rock, folk, blues, country music singer-songwriter. Williams has received three awards from 15 nominations.

• Miller Williams - US poet, as well as a translator and editor. He has authored over 25 books and won several awards for his poetry. His accomplishments have been chronicled in Arkansas Biography. He is perhaps best known for reading a poem at President Clinton's 1997 inauguration. One of his best-known poems is "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina."

• Chandre Oram - Man who has a tail due to spina bifida. Chandre Oram is an Indian tea estate worker who lives in Alipurduar district of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. He is famous for having a 13 inch long tail, which has made him an object of devotion to many, who believe him to be an incarnation of Hanuman, a Hindu deity that is a human of vanara clan whose emblem is monkey.

• George Schapell - US country music singer. Conjoined twin with Lori Schapell, Together they are the oldest confirmed conjoined twins. Lori was not born with Spina Bifida.  George has performed as a country singer. In 2007, George, who was at that time known as Reba Schappell, stated that although assigned female at birth, he identified as male and changed his name to George. George Schappell has designed support equipment for people with physical handicaps, including a specialized wheelchair and a mobility aid for dogs.

• Jean Driscoll - American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive first place finishes from 1990 to 1996. Driscoll participated in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning a total of five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in events ranging from 200 meters to the marathon.

• Aaron Fotheringham - American extreme wheelchair athlete who performs tricks adapted from skateboarding and BMX. Fotheringham calls his activity ‘WCMX’. He is the first person to successfully perform a backflip in a wheelchair at the age of 14, and a double backflip at the age of 18. He performs many other tricks in his wheelchair including 180 degree 'aerials', one-wheeled spins and rail grinds. He plans to fuse the back flip with the 180 aerial into what is known as a ‘flair'.
  In 2010 Aaron joined the Nitro Circus Live tour, an action sports road show that tours Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States. On the tour Aaron performed on a fifty-foot ramp-to-ramp jump doing backflips, double backflip attempts and on February 9th, 2011 in New Zealand, the world's first wheelchair frontflip.

• Robert M. Hensel - American Guinness World Record Holder for the longest non-stop wheelie in a wheelchair, covering a distance of just over 6 miles. Disabilities activist and poet. In 2000, realizing the need to focus more on one's abilities and less on their disabilities, Hensel sought to have a week designated that would bring to light the many talents and accomplishments being made by individuals with disabilities. Due to his efforts, Oswego County passed a motion that year recognizing Oct. 1-7 as Beyond Limitations week.

• CNN Co-anchor Judy Woodruff - has a son with spina bifida. She has been instrumental in the annual SBAA Celebrity Roast which raises funds for the Spina Bifida Association of America.

• Buddy Winnett - former horse jockey and trainer who is legally blind due to macular degeneration. Born in West Virginia to a large family, Winnett was diagnosed with spina bifida, and wasn't expected to live past the age of 6.

• Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley - had a son named Kevin who had spina bifida. Kevin died in 1981.

• Quarterback Elvis Grbac - has a young son who has spina bifida. He was the quarterback of the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers.

• Poet Jay Bradford Fowler - 
   was an award-winning poet who was the author of 17 books of verse. He was born with spina bifida, and had been treated for degenerative arthritis throughout the 1990s. He had undergone at least 16 major operations over the years and had been bedridden the past eight years.
  The first of his 17 books of poetry, "Writing Down the Light," was published in 1987. A book of his collected poems, "Caged Angel," was published in 1997. His last book, "Outrageous Asylum, Sonnets from the Nursing Home," appeared in 1998. A final volume of his work is to be published this year.

• Author Paul Monette
   was the older of two boys. His brother, Robert, was born with spina bifida. Monette became Robert's protector and champion. He also decided he would need to live an exemplary life to compensate for his brother's illness.
  "Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End" is a poignant, illuminating documentary on Paul Monette, the National Book Award-winning author, who wrote with eloquence and fire about the devastation of homophobia and AIDS, the disease that left him twice a widower and ended his own life in 1995 at age 49.

• Sound Designer Jim LeBrecht - 
  born with spina bifida. He is also the co-author (with composer Deena Kaye) of Sound and Music for the Theatre: the Art and Technique of Design, and has been a visiting professor at Yale University. LeBrecht has won numerous awards, including the San Francisco Bay Area Drama Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding Sound Design, which might as well be renamed in his honor, since he's won it five times.

• Journalist Gilbert M. Gaul - Gil is a 1979 Pulitzer Prize winner for Investigative Reporting and has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Washington Post. He has a son, Cary, who has spina bifida. Gil profiled his son's early years in the book "Giant Steps" which is currently out-of-print but can sometimes be found at used book stores and online.

• Actor Boris Kodjoe, whose own daughter suffers from spina bifida, is all smiles at the charity event. Austrian-born actor and former fashion model who works primarily in the United States. He is perhaps best known for his role as courier-turned-sports agent Damon Carter on the Showtime television drama series Soul Food and for his role as David Taylor in the film The Gospel. Additionally, he starred as Steven Bloom in the cancelled 2010 NBC action/drama series Undercovers, and as Luther West in the films Resident Evil: Afterlife and Resident Evil: Retribution.