Monday, March 10, 2025 - Prince Frederik of Luxembourg has died after a lifelong battle with a rare genetic disorder known as POLG mitochondrial disease.
He passed away on March 1 in Paris, his family announced on Sunday,
March 9 on the website of the POLG Foundation, which Frederik started in 2022.
“It is with a very heavy heart that my wife and I would like to inform
you of the passing of our son, The POLG Foundation Founder and Creative
Director, Frederik,” his father Prince Robert of Luxembourg wrote.
The foundation describes POLG as a “genetic mitochondrial disorder that
robs the body’s cells of energy, in turn causing progressive multiple organ
dysfunction and failure.”
It said the disease has no treatment or cure.
“Frederik and the POLG Foundation … are committed to finding therapies
and a cure to save other patients from suffering what Frederik and our family
have endured,” his father wrote.
Prince Frederik died a day after Rare Disease Day. He was in his early
20s.
Despite his condition he “found the strength and the courage to say
goodbye to each of us in turn – his brother, Alexander; his sister, Charlotte;
me; his three cousins, Charly, Louis, and Donall; his brother-in-law, Mansour;
and finally, his Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Mark,” Prince Robert wrote.
Frederik was “disciplined and organised beyond belief,” the statement
said.
“On Friday [the day before he died], his Italian Duolingo and exercise
alarm went off like any other day.”
Prince Frederik was diagnosed with POLG at 14, which causes such a wide
range of symptoms and affects many different organ systems, making it very
difficult to diagnose and has no treatments or a cure, the statement said.
“As is the case for 300 million people like Frederik worldwide, these
diseases are usually hard to recognise even by physicians, and patients’
families may never know what they are suffering from as they may only be
identified very late in their progression,” his father wrote.
“One might compare it to having a faulty battery that never fully
recharges, is in a constant state of depletion and eventually loses power,”
Prince Robert wrote.
Prince Frederik had voiced his gratitude for having his disease
over the years. And it was recently found out that he once had told a close
friend (unbeknown to Frederik’s family until now): “I am glad that I am the one
who was born with this disease. Even though I’ll die from it …. and even if my
parents do not have the time to save me, I know that they will be able to save
other children.”
“Though Prince Frederik always made it very clear that he did not want
the dreadful disease to define him, he devoted himself to spreading awareness
on the rare disease,” the statement said, including participating in medical
trials “to find treatments and, perhaps, ways of repurposing molecules to help
patients with his condition.”
“Frederik passed on March 1st 2025, in Paris, France, the City of
Lights. One light was extinguished, but so many remain.”
0 Comments