Anita Fatis is a fighting woman. Suffering from multiple sclerosis since the age of 26, the disabled former swimmer with an impressive curriculum (15 French champion titles, three world medals and as many European medals, finalist in the London and Rio Olympics, ed) does not give himself respite . On November 1st, at the dawn of her sixties, she will fly to Nepal where will participate in his third trek in the Himalayas.
Without his chair
A new challenge for the woman who, after seventeen years in a wheelchair, can walk again thanks to her C-brace mechatronic orthosis – a unique system in the world for the control of the stance and swing phase that reacts intelligently, thanks to sensors placed in several points of the leg and foot, and connected to an electronic box – and which will attach, standing on the legs, to the wild Rolwaling valley.
“I have a past as a high-level athlete. I managed to overcome my limits, but for the first time I am afraid of failing, ”says Anita Fatis, who has learned to walk again for just two years after a constant and sustained effort.
And to explain: «The airline that transports us doesn’t want to take charge of my quadrix (off-road wheelchair, ed). Seventeen days of walking, we will have to keep them… ”, still worries Thionvilloise who had set herself the goal of two or three hours of walking a day. “Going to Nepal is fine, but Sherpa back trekking is not my goal,” says Anita Fatis. Because, in addition to the personal challenge that this climb represents, it is above all to set an example that you will put one foot in front of the other. “I want to demonstrate to all those who, like me, have a disability, that you have to move, give yourself the means. There are too many people who, because they are isolated, give up. “
Specific settings
Higher and higher, further and further away, he who is also head of Thionville’s disabled swimming section and councilor he is not likely to give up. In the car that takes her to Paris, where she will make specific adjustments to her orthoses to fit the mountain, she knows she will go all the way as always to ward off the disease. She drives away bad luck. In this expedition organized by the association she presides, SEP Activities (for multiple sclerosis, ed), she will be accompanied in particular by her husband, Kamel, a physiotherapist, and by the Savoyard Audrey Hochard, suffering from the same pathology. . Six people in all for one goal: to defeat disease on the rocky slopes of the highest peaks in the Himalayas.
