IFAJ has received the very sad news of the death of Lut de Bruyne in Belgium.
On June 19, it was announced that she died unexpectedly after surgery, aged only 45. It is a great shock for her husband and three children and other family members, for her colleagues in the Belgian Guild of Agricultural Journalists (BVLJ-ABJA), and for all in IFAJ who got to know Lut during the Congress in Belgium last April.
As one of the main organisers of the congress, she was one of the recipients of an IFAJ gold medal.
A message to IFAJ from the congress chairman, Jef Verhaeren, and BVLJ-ABJA president Jacques Van Outryve reads, “Only two months after IFAJ2010, Lut De Bruyne, who was strongly engaged in the organisation and the success of the congress, died unexpectedly after surgery on a non-malignant brain tumour. She was only 45 years old and leaves a husband and three children behind.
“You will have met her at the congress and remember her as a very enthusiastic and dynamic young woman, always ready to arrange things with a smile and a joke. She was the sunshine of the congress. And so she always was, as a dynamic and socially very engaged woman and mother, as well as an always positive editor and colleague. She did it all with a great and warm open heart, even in death giving that wonderful heart away to give new life to another person.
“On behalf of the Belgian Guild of Agricultural Journalists (BVLJ-ABJA) and the organisers of IFAJ2010, we further can’t find the necessary words and can only honour Lut with silence.”
Qualified as an agricultural engineer, Lut worked as a journalist for 10 years with the Boer & Tuinder farmers magazine, where she was the editor for six years. In 2009, she became chief of the marketing and communications department of the REO Veiling agricultural auction market in Roeselare. Lut was also involved in farmers’ organisations. She was national president of the Groene Kring youth organisation, a board member of KLJ Izegem, a member of the Landelijke Gilde Assenede, and chairperson of KVLV Assenede.