“He cherished life”: the tribute of the brother of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo

“I’ve been looking ahead to this second for 30 years. ” Reynier Pozzo di Borgo could not assist but experience a shape of relief on the declaration of the death of his little brother, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, a former businessman whose outstanding future stimulated the film ” Untouchables”.

Having become a quadriplegic in 1993 after a serious paragliding accident, Philippe lost all mobility. “You can’t consider what he suffered. It was endless ache every day, each night time, it become unbearable,” says her brother, eleven months her senior.

 

In 2015, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo have become the godfather of the association “Relieve however now not kill”, which campaigns against euthanasia. “One day, I informed him that I would had been satisfied for him to die as a result of the coincidence and he responded: I am very glad to stay. He persisted those pains for thirty years,” says Reynier Pozzo di Borgo.

“He has carried out loads for the disabled”

But “thanks to this, he has done loads for the handicap, he believes. He turned into a man who loved life, and who loved sharing, he felt he had a mission vis-à-vis disability; he has ruined his fitness by means of dint of making remains, of meetings. »

Philippe had “come to be almost an icon”, observes his brother. Very solicited to shoot in movies, “he stated to them: your script pisses me off, your script makes me cry. He desired pleasure, life, that’s how he said sure to Nakache and Toledano. »

 

The directors, in addition to the actor Omar Sy, quick paid tribute to him on Instagram: “By accepting that we adapt his story in Intouchables, he modified our lives and the lives of many inclined and fragile people”, they wrote.

“He did something with his lifestyles”

According to his brother, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo had donated his price received way to the film (inspired by way of his paintings, The Second Breath) to the Simon de Cyrène affiliation, of which he became the honorary president. This affiliation targets to develop shared houses among disabled and in a position-bodied people.

“Reality has taken priority over fiction! Philippe had regular the variation at the circumstance that 5% of the earnings be donated to the affiliation, which allowed Simon de Cyrène to take off and open the shared homes, ”confirms a spokesperson.

“I’m glad that it controlled to return true, underlines Reynier Pozzo di Borgo. Apart from his chin and his mind, the whole lot else changed into inert. In his condition, he did some thing together with his existence, he stuffed it with the little he had left. »

Philippe Pozzo di Borgo shared his life among Essaouira, Morocco, where he lived together with his second wife Khadija and his children, and Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) wherein he traveled regularly to get hold of care. Under the African sun, “he suffered a little less. In France, the variation in atmospheric stress gave him phantom ache. The climate in Morocco become more healthy for him. »