He didn’t let Parkinson’s stop him – now Switzerland’s bravest hiker is dead

The Défi Parkinson association announced the death of Yves Auberson in a statement entitled “A great man has left us”. The 54-year-old Nyon became known to a wide audience in 2020 with his incredible walk from Lake Geneva to Graubünden and back.

He hiked more than 1000 kilometers through the mountains. Many times he fell, but he always got back up. He accepted the fight against the incurable neurodegenerative disease that doctors diagnosed him at the age of 35. The disease became his constant companion, Auberson speaking of him as “Monsieur Parkinson”.

This stowaway caused vibrations and involuntary movements that upset the man from Nyon, slowing him down but unable to stop him. “When I leave, I feel alive. The disease disappears,” Yves Auberson regularly emphasized. His courage and selflessness earned him the title of “Person of the Year 2020” in the La Côte region on Lake Geneva .

The audience was moved to discover a man whose courage was admirable. Auberson also helped us learn about the unfamiliar symptoms of the disease, including uncontrolled movements of the affected body.

“This muscular restlessness is called dyskinesia. My body wakes up so often that I sweat like I’m running. It’s gotten out of hand,” said Auberson in Le Temps. Those affected also suffer from the counter-symptom, frostbite. “It’s like lead is flowing in my veins. That scares me the most,” the walker admitted. He compared his situation as follows: “I am like a shark: if I don’t move, I will die.”

Auberson had to take 15 pills every day. In the spring of 2021, he underwent surgery. With the help of electrodes in his brain, he would be granted a “normal” life for a few years. “But the disease progressed much faster than hoped and the cells continued to destroy … too quickly,” said his friend Michel Zryd.

Yves Auberson decided and organized his death with the support of the Exit association. “This athlete could hardly have endured life in a nursing home at the age of 54,” journalist Didier Sandoz wrote on Thursday. About three weeks ago, the decision was made to end his pain. Auberson returned to his studio in Nyon one last time to say goodbye to his loved ones and to life before Vangelis’ “Conquest of Paradise”.

“Surrounded by the love of his loved ones, Yves Auberson went as he lived, with courage and dignity,” said the association Défi Parkinson. A great man has left us.