Reeve has appeared in a number of films and TV shows

The latest trial for the 44-year-old - a non-smoker all her life - comes in a career that has been more associated with her campaigning work than her presence on the screen.

Dana Reeve was born in New York and worked as a singer before meeting the star of Superman while at a booking in Massachusetts in 1987.

The pair married in 1992 and celebrated the arrival of son Will in the same year.

Lobbying

Three years later, their world was turned upside down when actor Reeve suffered a riding accident and was left paralysed from the neck down.

His wife Dana devoted her life to his care, and immediately gave up her singing career.

Reeve cared for her husband until his death in 2004

She also became a vocal campaigner for human embryonic stem cell research, which offered a glimmer of hope for her husband - but required a great deal of lobbying.

Her work included becoming the chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, set up to help people who had suffered serious spinal cord injuries.

It was during this period that the actress embarked on a small-scale acting career, which included guest appearances in police dramas Law And Order and Feds.

She also played Wendy Schulz in a number of episodes of prison series Oz.

Back in 1995, Dana appeared as a female detective in Above Suspicion, which starred her husband as a paralysed policeman.

Book

Her only other film role to date has been in The Brooke Ellison Story, one of Christopher Reeve's last pieces of work, which he directed.

Reeve's death in October 2004 left his wife to continue to campaign in favour of stem cell research.

She is also writing a book chronicling her life with her husband, which is due to be published next year.