From September 10 to 12, 2025, professor Bert Smeets and his son Emile cycled in the iconic mountains for the Ride4Kids Pyrenees Challenge. This challenge supports an important cause: raising money for children with metabolic diseases. Many people supported them and the entire Ride4Kids team. Together they raised the beautiful amount of  €304.845.

This year the adventure was also all about Aashlesha, a young student who died last year during a cycling trip in Limburg. At the top of the Tourmalet they placed a memorial stone as a tribute to the deceased young woman and her parents. Bert wrote this in memoriam about Aashlesha.

In memoriam Aashlesha Vartak

On Monday, June 17, we got the terrible news that Aashlesha Vartak, 22-years-old, died in a bicycle accident a week earlier. This happened only a few days after she finished her internship and defended her bachelor thesis in our department. Her sudden death was a major shock for all of us, who knew her and worked with her.

Coming from India, Aashlesha started her bachelor study in the Maastricht Science Programme in COVID days, and being introvert, she had a tough time in getting a social life in Maastricht. Her parents mentioned that she had been quite lonely in those days, but that she was determined to carry-on, quitting was no option. Both characteristics were visible when she started in our department on a LAMA2-MD project under supervision of Rossella and me, and with help of Zheping (and many others). As it was her first time in the lab, she had to learn all the lab skills and that was more demanding than she expected. Everything, pipetting the plates, checking the stocks, a careful planning, took considerable time and resulted in lengthy experiments generally crossing the end of a normal working day. Again, a tough start, but quitting was no option. She persisted and, in the end, managed to have reliable results as quickly as the more experienced lab members. She was proud of that. The internship was also the best way to overcome her natural shyness. She had to communicate with her supervisors and other members of our lab, she engaged with the interns in her room and established true friendships with some of them, especially Flor and Xiang. We could now see and experience the truly warm and social person, she really was, when expressing herself. All of this made her confidence grow and she was definitely happy in our group. She improved even on her worst nightmare, giving oral presentations. Although still uncomfortable with her long body and arms in the centre of attention, she did well. She had everything in place to give a good presentation, she just needed to become more comfortable. And I am sure she would have managed in the long run. Having a successful internship with good grades in her pocket, she was optimistic and ready to go to Amsterdam for her Master ‘s study.

But Aashlesha will never study at the University of Amsterdam, her parents had to take her home forever. Her parents and brother were in Maastricht last week for the funeral. Despite their intense sadness and grief, they were pleased to see so many of our department at the crematorium. They did not expect that. The knowledge that Aashlesha was happy during her internship and confidently looking into the future, gave them some comfort, even in this extremely tough time. It meant a lot for them. As Aashlesha was very close with her parents and shared everything she did in the lab, the parents were also grateful to be able to visit our department and see with their own eyes what she talked about: the long corridors, the cell culture lab, the qPCR, the lunch space.

From her parents, I learned that Aashlesha was an extremely skilled painter. She carried a small sketchbook with her, continuously making sketches and drawings of everything she saw or experienced. She chose Amsterdam not only for the study, but also for the museums and the wealth of art. An artist was hidden inside of her. She also loved nature and walking in the woods of South-Limburg, even more than visiting the city of Maastricht. This could have been the reason for her final bicycle trip in the hills with her father. She thought that this would be the last opportunity to do this, as she was going to leave. Sadly, she was right, but in a different way than expected. Luckily her father was with her after the accident and in the hospital. She did not die alone.

Dear Aashlesha, it is not fair, and it is unacceptable that you had to go. But it is the hard reality. We have to take the beauty and inspiration you gave us further in your name. And we will do so. We will never forget that kind and bright girl from India, who coloured our lives. Dear Aashlesha, rest in peace.

Bert Smeets, June 26, 2024