Former South African rugby star, Joost van der Westhuizen was given between two and five years to live when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2011.
In his words, he’s been on a death bed since being diagnosed in 2011 after first noticing a weakness in his right arm in 2008. Rather than be downbeat, he’s taking on MND head-on, much like a Lomu tackle.
‘When something goes wrong in somebody’s life they say. “Why me?” It’s actually quite simple, why not? Why not me? You have a choice. Either you sit and home and deteriorate and die, or you stand up and you do what you love,’ he said.
‘Everybody’s going to die somehow, and the moment I realised I had to find a positive. I have an opportunity to fix my life 100 per cent before I go.
Joost has since been campaigning around the world for MND-related causes and trying to raise funds to help find an elusive cure through his J9 Foundation, with the help of his family.
We all have been given the gift of life, the privilege to breathe and experience relationship, love and potentially enjoy life! As life’s complications get in the way and various difficult tragedies befall us, we loose that great excitement of living, and as we age, we become ever grateful at the prospect of life coming to an end. Slightly drastic perhaps, but if we’re to be brutally honest, sometimes we do feel like giving up!
Ultimately, we have the choice of life or death. If anyone has ever deserved the right to give up, it would be someone like Joost; perhaps you too have had a dreadful experience or critical report handed to you. What will you do? Will you give up or will you choose to live and make the most of the time given to you? Joost van der Westhuizen chooses life in the midst of all his troubles, how will you choose?
If you feel like giving up, please click the banner below and we’ll help inspire you to live life the the fullest and make the most of your time on Earth.
Credit: Edited // Daily Mail