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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 4 September 2008

Fieke van den Berg

Wheelchair user, 76, bows out with brave final fundraiser

A WHEELCHAIR-bound parishioner of a Highgate church has raised £11,000 for a pilgrimage after completing a mile-long walk around the Parliament Hill running track on Saturday.
Fieke van den Berg, 76, completed the circuit on crutches despite concern from fellow parishioners at St Joseph’s that she would not make it on account of her ataxia, a condition affecting movement and balance.
It was the last sponsored walk for the fund-raising veteran, who this year completed her 50th annual pilgrimage to Lourdes in the Pyreaneese foothills of southern France.
Father Mark White of St Joseph’s said: “She was raising money for the Society of Our Lady of Lourdes this time, which takes sick people to Lourdes each year. Fieke is a parishioner at St Joseph’s and she raised money for our church in March.
“We wondered whether she should put herself through the fatigue. She started off in very good spirits but was very tired at the end.
“Fieke is a very highly valued member of the community. We admire her tremendous courage.”
Following the claims that there were apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Christian pilgrimage.
The 150th jubilee of the apparitions was held there this year in June, drawing huge crowds, including Ms van den Berg. St Joseph’s parish registrar Jenny Lee, who accompanied Fieke on a June pilgrimage, said: “It was amazing to be with her in the place she knows so well, and where she is known to so many. The Society of Our Lady of Lourdes presented her with a special medal this year for her long service, and she was treated like royalty whenever anyone spotted the medal she was wearing.
“She was naturally apprehensive before Saturday, but she was absolutely determined to go ahead.
“She has said that this is positively her last walk.”

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