“He is battling a complicated illness.” In an interview given to Sud Radio, Wednesday November 6, 2024, Michel Denisot gave news of one of his former collaborators, Charles Biétry. The former sports director of Canal + is in fact fighting against Charcot disease: a diagnosis revealed in April 2023 to the general public.
Rapid and debilitating, the disease progresses quickly, as confirmed by the former host of “Grand Journal”. “Today, he can almost no longer speak, we don't understand, he has a very complicated speech problem and has difficulty moving,” he says, while specifying: “He has a youthful eye and he is fighting… Really very admiring of his fight because it's an illness that has no cure for the moment and that's it. I talk to him, he can text, so I talk to him very often, we take care of it. .”
Five years of medical wandering
Diagnosed a little over a year before speaking about it publicly, Charles Biétry told the newspaper L'Equipe that the disease had been difficult to detect. In fact, he had been battling pathology for four years already, without knowing it. “The diagnosis is generally given when it is advanced. As I did everything to rebuild the muscles that were failing, the disease took time to become apparent. After a while, it managed to come out of the corner and the diagnosis appeared clear. For others who have never done sport or because everyone is different, it can go much faster.”
Always passionate about sport, he explained that he relied on this practice to keep going. “I work every day physically, except Sunday because there is a lot of football on TV.” All with one idea in mind: “I set myself a somewhat nebulous goal: to beat the record for longevity with this disease. The other time, I saw a gentleman who only communicates with his eyes. I I don't want to break that record… I want to beat the record of the guy who is still dating, with whom my friends can come and spend a day or two.”
He doesn't want to suffer until the end
When he announced his diagnosis to the general public, Charles Biétry also revealed that he had started planning his assisted suicide in Switzerland, since euthanasia is illegal in France. For now, the disease is already affecting his muscles, but also his mouth and his speaking abilities. “The next stage is the attack on the lungs,” he describes. “For the moment it’s okay, but I’m watching for it. And when it’s no longer okay, I want to stop…”
He said this to our colleagues: “We organized everything with my wife and my children. I don't want to be connected to a machine to breathe when there is nothing left, no future. I I don't want to suffer and especially make my family suffer. We have made arrangements to stop before reaching this point. I registered in Switzerland for assisted suicide, all the papers are signed.
On Twitter, he had also taken part in debates on the end of life, like many public figures. “I have managed to live well, I don't want to die badly. Charcot's disease has already deprived me of the use of my legs and of speech. Soon it will be breathing accompanied by suffering for me and mine. This law, a first step, can offer us freedom and dignity,” he said, referring to the end-of-life bill announced by Emmanuel Macron in March 2024.
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