Ex-boxing pro René Weller has been dependent on care since he fell ill with dementia. Now his wife Maria is sounding the alarm: the condition of the 68-year-old is getting worse and worse. But she cannot afford adequate care in the home.
Former German professional boxer René Weller suffers from dementia. The ex-professional athlete is cared for by his wife Maria. But now the condition of the 68-year-old has deteriorated significantly. "René is now in total need of care. He can no longer do anything alone," explains Weller's wife in an interview with the "Bild" newspaper.
"He has trouble swallowing, needs help eating, showering, using the toilet." He recognizes her, but Weller no longer knows "that I am his wife". She has no prospect of relief. "We can't afford a place in a nursing home," says Maria Weller.
Weller's wife railed: "It's a luxury and has become unaffordable. That's how our Germany is. Pathetic." René Weller only gets a pension of 270 euros a month. "We still have some savings." If they had to fall back on it, "we'll soon be desperately poor" and "couldn't live anymore".
The boxing officials would no longer care about her husband. "He was just being taken advantage of," she continues. Doctors would also attribute his dementia to the multiple blows to his head he received during his boxing career. "Anyone who gets sick is left alone in the end." That makes her "angry and sad".
Maria Weller had already spoken to the "Bild" newspaper about her husband's dementia in the summer of 2021. A nursing home was not an issue at the time. She declared: "As long as I can, I will be there for my René." In July 2022, the ex-boxer was admitted to the head clinic at Heidelberg University Hospital. "It literally slipped between my fingers," said the 70-year-old, with whom René Weller has been married since 2013, at the time of the newspaper. The clinic is "the only real way out. And I know that he is in the best hands there."
As a professional, René Weller was, among other things, German Champion and two-time European Champion of the European Boxing Union (EBU). He ended his career almost 30 years ago. He was also seen on TV. In the summer of 2016, he and his wife took part in the RTL format "Das Sommerhaus der Stars".
