Joost van der Westhuizen's memory board

Joost van der Westhuizen,was a South African rugby union player who played as a scrum-half for the national team in 89 test matches, scoring 38 tries. He played in three Rugby World Cups and was a member of the South African rugby team that won at the 1995 World Cup. He also played in the team that took South Africa's first Tri-Nations title in 1998. He played for the Provincial State side the Blue Bulls 1993– 2003 and won two domestic Currie Cup trophies in 1998 and 2002. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007,and became a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame when the International Hall was merged with the IRB Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2011, Van der Westhuizen announced that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease (MND). He actively campaigned for issues relating to MND through the J9 Foundation, a charity devoted to MND issues. Joost van der Westhuizen (20 February 1971 – 6 February 2017) was a South African rugby union player who played as a scrum-half for the national team in 89 test matches, scoring 38 tries. He played in three Rugby World Cups and was a member of the South African rugby team that won at the 1995 World Cup. He also played in the team that took South Africa's first Tri-Nations title in 1998. He played for the Provincial State side the Blue Bulls 1993– 2003 and won two domestic Currie Cup trophies in 1998 and 2002. He was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007,and became a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame when the International Hall was merged with the IRB Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2011, Van der Westhuizen announced that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease (MND). He actively campaigned for issues relating to MND through the J9 Foundation, a charity devoted to MND issues. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Pretoria.In 1995 he married Marlene.Their divorced was completed in 2001, shortly before he married Amor 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.He denied being in the video but admitted knowing the two people in it.Although he has never identified the woman. Heat magazine later posted censored versions of the video online. In March 2009, a mystery former female sports star – thought to be high-jump champion Charmaine Weavers – claimed in a very detailed interview in YOU magazine that she had an on-off affair with him, with sexual encounters even while his wife Amor was in hospital. Also in March, a former stripper called Marilize van Emmenis came forward and in an interview with Heat magazine said that she was the girl in the video with Van der Westhuizen, and that they had done drugs together. She passed a polygraph test,and her voice was verified by a voice-recognition expert.Van der Westhuizen refused to comment on this and other subsequent allegations of improper conduct with other women. On 28 June 2009, Van der Westhuizen was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack, though he was discharged soon afterward when tests found no evidence of heart problems. A panic attack was suspected.On 1 November, Van der Westuizen confessed to being in the controversial sex video and apologised for lying. Around that time his autobiography, Spieëlbeeld (Man in the mirror), was released. Near the end of 2008, Van der Westhuizen first noticed weakness in his right arm, writing it off to the aftereffects of an old rugby injury.A few months later, he was play-fighting in a swimming pool with a friend who was also his personal doctor, and discovered further weakness in the arm. The doctor suspected motor neurone disease, a diagnosis that was confirmed in 2011. At that time, Van der Westhuizen was given between two to five years to live. An August 2013 BBC Sport report illustrated the progress of his disease — by then, Van der Westhuizen was confined to a wheelchair, and his speech had grown increasingly slurred. He told reporter James Peacock, I realise every day could be my last. It's been a rollercoaster from day one and I know I'm on a deathbed from now on. I've had my highs and I have had my lows, but no more. I'm a firm believer that there's a bigger purpose in my life and I am very positive, very happy. In January 2014, he returned to the USA to participate in clinical studies with ALS researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He also planned to visit the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Center in New York City, which provides support to MND patients, as Van der Westhuizen hoped to start a similar organisation in South Africa. Until his death, he remained active operating his J9 Foundation,a charity devoted to MND issues. He regularly spent time with his children, Jordan and Kylie.On the 4th of February 2017 he was admitted to the ICU ward of the Fourways Life Hospital in Johannesburg where he was placed on a ventilator. He died on 6 February 2017. He was 45 years old