Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
London Paralympics star in euthanasia death at 40
Hailed as an ‘athlete of iron strength’
PARALYMPIAN Marieke Vervoort has died by euthanasia aged 40, after signing papers more than a decade ago in Belgium so she could.
Marieke, who won the 100-metre wheelchair gold in the 2012 London Games, had said the prospect of being helped to die gave her “a feeling of rest”.
She was diagnosed aged 21 with an incurable, degenerative spinal condition.
Speaking at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, where she won silver at 400m in her T52 category, the Belgian said: “This is my last Paralympic Games. I have a progressive disease and I signed my euthanasia papers already, in 2008, because it’s really, really hard to handle, and to suffer with this disease.”
She added: “I hope euthanasia is something for every country that means – not murder – that it means giving a feeling of rest to people”.
But despite her worsening physical condition, she added: “I am still alive and still going to enjoy every little moment of life.” Belgium’s royal family paid tribute, writing: “Marieke Vervoort was an athlete of iron strength and a great lady. Her death affects us deeply.”
Her birthplace of Diest in northern Belgium published a message that read: “Despite her physical limitations she had a impressive sporting career. Marieke chose euthanasia a few years ago and followed through on her choice on Tuesday evening.”
Local poet Kristien Nys wrote: “Your pain is also gone, you have done your last lap, you have waited long enough.”
The cause of Marieke’s paralysis was unknown but believed to be triggered by a deformation between the fifth and sixth vertebrae. Euthanasia was legalised in Belgium in 2002, with the written consent of three doctors.
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Eleanor Oldroyd, who interviewed Marieke in 2016, said: “I hope and pray it was a soft and beautiful death, as she wished. I’ll never forget her, or the days we shared.”