Widow of Christopher Reeve is dead

Dana Reeve, who announced in 2004 that she had lung cancer, is no more.

First Christopher Reeve, who the world will always remember as Superman. Now, his wife. Dana Reeve, 44, has died of lung cancer.

A singer-actress who gave up her own career to take care of her husband, Dana was admired the world over for the love and affection she showered on her husband after an accident left him completely paralysed. At the time of her death, she was involved in her work as chair of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which funds research into spinal-cord paralysis cures.

In August 2004, Dana had announced that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, even though she wasn't a smoker. She had been responding well to treatment lately, and reports said her tumour was shrinking. She often said that she managed to coped because she had been married to a man who never gave up. Her husband, Christopher, died on October 10, 2004. The couple have a 13-year old son, Will, and Dana Reeve has two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.

She won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society a year ago.