Darter Toon Greebe from Den Bosch died on Monday morning at the age of 35. The darts player was known as a great talent at the start of his career. He had had health problems for a long time and previously had to have his right foot and left lower leg amputated.
At the beginning of his career, Greebe was considered a great talent in darts. He was active at the 2008 and 2010 World Cup, among others. Both times he was eliminated in the first round. But the native of Den Bosch, who has diabetes, disappeared from the top darts circuit, affected by a lot of suffering.
In 2017, the life of darts player Toon Greebe changed drastically because an inflammation in his foot ultimately turned out to be so severe that an amputation was necessary. According to the doctors, Greebe crawled through the eye of the needle, something he would only realize later.
Greebe wins Polish Open with prosthesis
He learned how to play darts with a prosthesis and over time started participating in tournaments again. In 2019 he even won the Polish Open. He also put a lot of energy into his darts school in the De Schutskamp district of Den Bosch. He even dared to dream of qualifying for the Darts World Cup again, as the first ‘one-legged’ darts player ever.
Last year, the native of Den Bosch had to deal with another major setback. “My kidneys stopped working in March,” he told Omroep Brabant at the time. “I am currently waiting for a new kidney. Due to these problems, my body no longer worked properly. As a result, a wound on my foot did not heal properly.” Things went from bad to worse and in October his left lower leg also had to be amputated.
Despite the amputations, he maintained a positive outlook on life and drew on the example of his grandmother. “She never let herself be discouraged.”
The darts world is reacting en masse and especially in dismay to the death of the young darts player. “That scares me. He was still so young,” responds Arjan van der Giessen, darts expert at Omroep Brabant. There are also many expressions of support for Greebe on social media.
Toon Greebe in an interview from 2017 shortly after his first amputation: