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May 15, 2024

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Fayol Lily (b. 1914-06-12 / d. 1999-05-15)

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van der Westhuizen
Joost. 2017-02-06

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Born 1971-02-20. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:orphan disease

Joost Heystek van der Westhuizen was a South African professional rugby union player who made 89 appearances in test matches for the national team, scoring 38 tries. He mostly played as a scrum-half and participated in three Rugby World Cups, most notably in the 1995 tournament, which was won by South Africa. He is widely regarded as the greatest scrumhalf of all time. He captained the national side on ten occasions and was part of the team that won South Africa's first Tri-Nations title in 1998. Domestically he played for the provincial side the Blue Bulls from 1993 to 2003, with whom he won two domestic Currie Cup trophies in 1998 and 2002, and from 1996 until his retirement in 2003 played Super 12 rugby for Northern Transvaal (later renamed the Bulls). He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007 and later into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In 2011, it was announced that van der Westhuizen had motor neurone disease. He eventually became confined to a wheelchair and experienced speech problems, yet still raised awareness of the disease through his charity, the J9 Foundation. In 2001, he and his wife of six years, Marlene, divorced, shortly before he married Amor Vittone. He had two children with Vittone. In February 2009, Rapport newspaper and Heat magazine reported that they had video evidence of him engaging in sex play with a mystery blonde and snorting a white substance. Charmaine Weavers claimed to have had an affair with him in an interview with YOU magazine. His marriage to Vittone fell apart. At the end of March he lost his job as a television presenter with the South African broadcaster SuperSport. On 28 June 2009, he was admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack, although he was discharged soon afterward when tests found no evidence of heart problems. A panic attack was suspected. On 1 November, coinciding with the release of his autobiography Spieëlbeeld ("Man in the mirror"), van der Westhuizen confessed to being in the controversial sex video and apologised for lying. In a telephone interview in August 2013 with BBC Sports correspondent James Peacock, he spoke about facing up to the controversy. "What I did went against all my principles - my life was controlled by my mind and I had to make my mistakes to realise what life is all about, I led my life at a hundred miles an hour. I've learned that there are too many things that we take for granted in life and it's only when you lose them that you realise what it is all about. But I know that God is alive in my life and with experience you do learn. I can now talk openly about the mistakes I made because I know my faith won't give up and it won't diminish. It's only when you go through what I am going through that you understand that life is generous." Doping was at stake because of the disease. Several south africans were affected during the 90's (Ruben Kruger, Tinus Linee, André Venter).

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