The Legend Of A Warrior

AN extraordinary life filled with the achievements, the mistakes, the regrets, the trials and the tributes that come with being human. We pay tribute to one of SA’s most revered sportsmen.

- Vanessa Papas

THE world watched as the man who changed the face of rugby grew weaker by the day, ravaged by a fatal disease that left his brain untouched but his body broken. news of Joost van der Westhuizen’s death has left a void in the hearts of many South Africans who prayed for his recovery following his admission to the ICU of a Joburg hospital recently. He was placed on life support after his key organs began to fail late on Friday, February 3. Sadly, Joost lost his battle on Monday afternoon, leaving behind amor Vittone and their two children, son Jordan, 13, and daughter Kylie, 10, as well as his parents, Mariana and Gustav. He was two weeks shy of 46 years old. For the past six years Joost’s greatest battle hasn’t been on the rugby field. In 2011, the Bok scrum-half was diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND). The news came as a shock to his family, friends and fans. It infiltrated every corner of the world. Joost was in the prime of his life; fighting-fit at the time. He himself couldn’t believe that the disease would one day cause muscle weakness and paralysis to the point where he would no longer be able to use his strong body with which he had scored a then-Springbok record of 38 tries and made him known as one of the game’s finest-ever scrumhalves. He would lose the ability to move his body. He wouldn’t be able to speak or communicate with anything other than his eyes. He would become reliant on a feeding tube for nutrition. He would ultimately go into respiratory failure. And even more tragically, he would die before seeing his two children grow up.