While the Paralympic flame is currently in France, we invite you to (re)discover the testimony of Jean-Luc Bonnay who carried the Olympic flame in Beauvais on July 18. Suffering from blood cancer, the Beauvaisian tells how he experienced this moment with his daughter.
If he has not “nothing like Teddy Riner” According to his own words, Jean-Luc Bonnay is nevertheless engaged in a fight against the disease, of which he won the first round after prostate cancer. But today, the Beauvaisien is suffering from la maladie de Waldenströma blood cancer1.
“If I had not had this first cancer, the second would not have been detected early enough to be treated under the conditions in which it was done.”he assures.
And that almost prevented him from carrying the Olympic flame – he who was registered by his daughters “the last day of registration, at the very last hour”as Charline remembers – when he was among the first 30,000 selected then 10,000 official carriers a year after being diagnosed with the disease. “I read the email about the flame three or four times and showed it to my daughters because I thought it was a fake.”says Jean-Luc Bonnay.
A moment full of symbols
For almost six months now, “We talk about it every day and we continue to do so.”smiles Charline, her eldest daughter, who remembers having “saw stars in the eyes” of his father at the time of the news. If Jean-Luc managed to follow the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Cannes Film Festival as a film enthusiasthe had to start chemotherapy at the end of June.
“We cancelled everything but we told his doctor that there is one thing we cannot cancel: the carrying of the torch, launches Charline. We consulted with my father and I sent an email to the torch relay organization saying that the form he had completed without including an accompanying person was no longer valid. And frankly, it was done really easily.
Especially since two days before D-Day, “It was really very compromised” with the disease taking over again. “But until the day before and the very morning, Paris 2024 was very attentive to my health problems”would like to thank Jean-Luc Bonnay who highlights an organization « extraordinaire » :
There was an ambulance following the route. I really felt that the torchbearers were being taken into consideration at every level.
And as a sign of destiny, the Beauvaisien wore number 93… the FM frequency of Radio Mercure where he has been presenting his cinema show for nine years now or the date of birth of his daughter, Charline, who was with him during his relay: “It was a great pride to accompany my father and I also felt like I was representing my sisters, who were in the audience.”
“I’ve never heard my first name so much in Beauvais”
All three have, in fact, set up (“at their expense”says Jean-Luc) a sports coach in adapted physical activities related to their father’s illness so that he can stay in shape before his chemo.
“Without my daughters, psychologically and physically, I absolutely would not have been able to do it, says the father. And having Charline by my side helped me a lot because the weight of the torch would have been too heavy for me.”
Behind him, you can see the pride on his daughter Charline’s face: “The star was my father, really. People we didn’t know wanted to take pictures with him.” (© L’Obs de Bvs).
“What he does is huge”adds her eldest daughter who had “tears in my eyes from beginning to end” :
All along the 200 meters, he walked without stopping. Which was not the case two days before. It made me so happy to see him like that and it was as if, for a few minutes, we had forgotten everything about everyday life.
Charline Bonnay
In addition, to enhance the moment, his relay was done along the cathedral. Just that!
By surpassing himself, Jean-Luc thus embodied the values of Olympism which were also found in the fervour of the inhabitants who gathered around this flame… and around him. “I’ve never heard my first name so much in Beauvais”exclaims Jean-Luc Bonnay, on the phone.
Read also: VIDEO. Carrying the Olympic flame in Beauvais, “it was a lot of emotions” for Justine Bruno
He wants to be able to talk to children about cancer
The father was particularly touched by the public’s little attentions to the rhythm of the drums of Samb’bagage who gathered for him or even a child’s drawing: “He gave it to my daughter while we were carrying the flame, telling her “It’s so your father can get well.” » Jean-Luc Bonnay wants to make use of this few minutes of interlude in a life that is not always easy, and also marked by the trials of illness.
The Olympic flame bearer wants to meet children and talk about cancer so that they don’t imagine the worst: “On average, one in 10 people around you is affected by cancer. So, automatically, in the children’s entourage, there is at least one person who is close to it.” He should ” certainly “ working with the association Perspectives against cancer to make interventions.
The goal being that they “understand the words chemo and cancer so as not to equate them with something else, insists Jean-Luc. Today, there are many that can be cured, including those that are not curable a priori. Even if this is not yet the case with Waldenström’s disease, which I suffer from, it is wrong to say that it is an incurable disease since I am being cured.
While we wait for this to be put in place, “This test will help us with future goals, according to his daughter. That is to say, the cures that he has left and perhaps being able to go on vacation in September.”
