{"id":19423,"date":"2013-04-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/joost-in-good-spirits-despite-deterioration\/"},"modified":"2013-04-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T10:00:00","slug":"joost-in-good-spirits-despite-deterioration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/joost-in-good-spirits-despite-deterioration\/","title":{"rendered":"Joost in good spirits despite deterioration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/0a484_3919704905.jpg\" alt=\"Copy of joost\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">INLSA<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">Rugby World Cup winning scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen continues to slowly lose his battle with motor neuron disease (MND), and now uses a wheelchair at times. Picture Brenton Geach<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/lifestyle\/people\/i-am-still-alive-not-dead-joost-1.1374418\">I am still alive, not dead &#8211; Joost<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/back-page\/amor-warns-joost-over-comments-1.1378494\">Amor warns Joost over comments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/sport\/rugby\/joost-s-battle-with-paralysis-1.1487692\">Joost\u2019s battle with paralysis<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; Rugby World Cup-winning scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen continues to slowly lose his battle with motor neuron disease (MND), and now uses a wheelchair at times. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Media reports from last week described how Van der Westhuizen was pushed in a wheelchair at a recent book launch. He was described as frail and appeared unable to move his hands. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The 42-year-old former rugby star was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a largely fatal form of MND, two years ago. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Van der Westhuizen\u2019s last notable public appearance was at his induction into the Springbok Experience museum in Cape Town last month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Van der Westhuizen was helped by his former captain, Francois Pienaar, at the ceremony, and only managed to say \u201cI feel good\u201d during an interview with the Cape Times. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The former number 9 also failed to make it to the Blue Bulls\u2019 75th anniversary celebration two weeks ago. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Nathania de Kock, the spokeswoman for J9, Van der Westhuizen\u2019s MND foundation, said attending public events was tiring for him. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cSome days are good, some are bad,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cUnfortunately his condition has deteriorated. MND is terminal and there is no cure,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">She said that Van der Westhuizen needed a wheelchair when he had to cover distances that were too tiring for him to walk. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cMND will leave you bedridden in your last year. You will only be able to communicate with your eyes, even though your mind is healthy.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Despite this, Van der Westhuizen maintained a positive and happy attitude, she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INLSA Rugby World Cup winning scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen continues to slowly lose his battle with motor neuron disease (MND), and now uses a wheelchair at times. Picture Brenton Geach Related Stories I am still alive, not dead &#8211; Joost Amor warns Joost over comments Joost\u2019s battle with paralysis Durban &#8211; Rugby World Cup-winning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-19423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}