Rein and Willie Terpstra


Willie Terpstra - a pioneer and a fighter



National News
Motor neurone disease victim fights to the end

Saturday November 18, 2006
By Juliet Rowan


Rein Terpstra reacts to sorrow over his wife Willie's death with the same kind of attitude she took to fighting motor neurone disease.

"Let's be happy for Willie," he said yesterday. "She was an amazing, good woman. I was so happy I could nurse her right to the end."

Willie Terpstra died on Thursday, aged 66, ending a fight against the crippling muscle-wasting disease that attracted worldwide attention when she went to China for controversial fetal-cell surgery in March last year.

Diagnosed with MND in 2003, Mrs Terpstra had two million cells from aborted fetuses injected into her brain during the $40,000 operation.

Within hours, she was able to talk to the degree her family could understand her, and gained relief from the torturous headaches and pains in her limbs that the disease caused.

But the improvements were temporary, and a year later her condition had deteriorated to the point where she was unable to eat, speak or hold her beloved bridge cards.

But through it all, Mrs Terpstra maintained her sense of humour and chose to share her plight to raise raise awareness of MND, which affects up to 250 New Zealanders a year. Victims have a life expectancy of two or three years. Mrs Terpstra's dying wish was that more support be given to the MND Association.

Mr Terpstra, speaking at the couple's Rotorua home, said it was wrong for the Government to want to spend millions on a waterfront stadium in Auckland.

"There always seems to be money for such things, but the people that suffer have to scrape and scrape."

Although her condition deteriorated, Mrs Terpstra continued to play bridge and type into the "talking machine" she used to communicate with until just a few weeks ago.

But at the end, she was forced to sleep sitting up in a chair because of difficulty breathing.

Her husband, who quit his job at the Kawerau mill in August to care for her, slept in a chair by her side.

* A service will be held on Wednesday at Rotorua Crematorium.


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