There are two types of Lego players. One follows the instructions and is amazed to see a miniature version of the Arc de Triomphe, for example. The other uses engineering thinking and artistic creativity to create something new. When did you realize that the world could be more exciting if you sometimes leave the instructions?

I got my first Lego set when I was two or three years old, and I started building from my own ideas very early on, but it was only five or six years ago that I started designing things that I was happy to share with others. Of course, before that, I built a lot from the manual, because that's how you learn how to start building in a way that makes the end result stable.

You have three siblings, are there no fights at home over the bricks?

My sister is not so keen on Lego. I've managed to "infect" my two brothers to some extent, although they're not as big fans as I am, but sometimes they come to me and we build together.

Which structures capture your imagination the most?

I'm more interested in vehicles, I mainly build cars, I don't really like static things. The idea for the foosball table came to me because I wanted to design a structure that would not only be an exhibit and just stand there, but something you could play with.

How did the idea of a tabletop foosball become a real set?

Ideas can be submitted to the LEGO Ideas site and if they receive at least 10,000 votes, they will be considered by the company. I think these designs make the most interesting Lego sets: I've seen typewriters and pianos made from LEGO bricks. I submitted this for a separate competition, where the theme was sport.

My tabletop foosball table won the public vote, but the really big opportunity was that the company wanted to make a set from my idea out of the many entries.

Image

Donát Fehérvári – Photo: László Katona

How should we imagine the designing process? Do you just pour the Lego onto the carpet and start stacking the bricks?

When I build, I don't usually use traditional blocks, but Technic parts, and I keep all my pieces and parts in separate boxes. However, on the Ideas site, you build things digitally. For example, when doing the tabletop foosball, I never built that with real parts. There's 3D software specifically designed for Lego building, and all the parts are available in unlimited quantities, so the building is really limited only by your imagination.

Once you’ve been selected, have you been involved in the planning process, too?

They contacted me online and that's how they told me I was the winner. Later they showed me two prototypes. The first one was completely different from the final one because it was designed to be bigger, but because of stability problems the whole thing had to be squeezed a bit. My original design was more similar to the first design, with eleven against eleven, but for the reasons I mentioned earlier, in the end, there were only ten players on the board. When I came up with an idea, they were open to it, but I had little input because the company has really professional designers who know what makes a good set.

In 2022, on the list of Highlights of Hungary, you were nominated by Vivien Mádai, television program producer, editor, and presenter.  How did you take it that your story became well-known and popular in Hungary?

I was very surprised when I found out that I had been nominated, I didn't expect to win the Family Friendly Special Award at all. There was an award ceremony in Budapest where I was able to go and meet a lot of people.

It was great to see the diversity and how many people in Hungary have great ideas.

Do you think it's possible that in a few years, you'll still be designing structures, but not with Lego bricks, but with screws, pedals, electronic cables, tubes, and indicators?

I want to work as a development engineer in the motor industry. I really hope that my dream will come true and that I will be able to continue creating new things.
 

Were there any similar efforts to protect the health of musicians before Kodály? Clara Schumann, for example, wrote in her diary notes that her father, who was also her piano teacher, advised her to spend as much time walking outdoors as she spent practising, to strengthen her nerves.

Yes, and what a broad-minded advice this is! Of course, a young musician who practices for six hours today cannot spend six hours walking in the woods... I miss that. Musicians who have studied in Russia tell me that a teacher who is supervising keeps walking past the practice rooms, and knocks on the door of the room in which the instrument stops playing because the work cannot stop. Those who can endure this will go on to win prestigious competitions - if they can.

It is a destructive approach, where it is not talent that counts, but stamina, and which makes breakdown inevitable.

For example, Leon Fleisher, the famous American pianist, developed a neurological disease at a young age that caused his right hand to go into spasm. He was forced to switch to left-handed playing and continued his career as a conductor and teacher. It was only thirty-five years later that he managed to return to the concert stage and played with both hands. Eckart Altenmüller, physician and musician professor in Hanover, believes that the main cause of this serious musical illness is perfectionism, where ambition is greater than strength.

When I'm sitting in the concert hall, listening to the music flowing, I have no idea that musicians often have to go through a lot of pain to play in the orchestra... Can there be pain, feelings of deprivation, even severe burnout behind the performance?

I developed a hand injury in music high school that made me miss three months of practice. No one could help me because we don't have any kind of special medical help or therapy for musicians. Our doctors do not learn about occupational injuries associated with musicians. The aching hand needs to rest, so they put it in a cast, but when they take the cast off and the musician starts practicing, the condition relapses. The immobility causes the tissues to weaken and become even more vulnerable. The surgeon will operate on the inflamed lump in the tendon sheath, but the structure in that area will become weaker and the strain will reappear when it is used again.

As a music academy teacher, Kodály saw many of his great colleagues and students fall ill and drop out of the profession. The master urged the Academy's leaders to find some kind of help. At that time, there was no physical education or swimming lessons for musicians – that, of course, made us, the students, delighted. Everybody hated PE, and we dreaded even the thought of a vault or a speeding basketball. The physical education of musicians is not always the best these days either. Recently, one music high school had a hand fracture every week. Kodály, who was a regular sportsman, once explained what the physical education of musicians should be like. Something that refreshes, relaxes, revitalizes physically and mentally, and counterbalances the great nervous-physical strain. It was at Kodály's initiative that the management of the Academy of Music asked Dr. Géza Kovács, a scientific researcher in physical education, to attend to the musicians' complaints.

Image

Dr. Géza Kovács in the 1950s and Dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor, who further developed his method - Photo: kovacsmethod.com and dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor

Is it possible to physically measure the load on musicians?

It can be compared to a person doing hard physical work. Kodály once commented on this, saying that the work of a musician, expressed in metric kilograms, beats the performance of a heavy physical worker. I myself once tried to measure roughly the power required to play a heavy chord on the piano, such as in one of Chopin's études. I saw a scale at the post office, and put my hand on it and pressed on it as if I were playing this Chopin on the piano. The pointer jumped to 15 kilograms.

This Chopin etude is full of such chords for six pages, which led me to conclude that a practicing pianist moves tons in an afternoon.

If someone's hands are not trained enough, they will inevitably suffer an injury. If a musician is not mentally able to cope with the strain, there are also subjective symptoms and signs, losing the will to work, and becoming dull and grey.

Grey?

Yes, the musical production becomes grey, and boring, the heart and soul are gone, and the playing that used to be so exciting fades away. Fatigue overrides even the most beautiful musical ideas.

I mean, you don't think of musicians as people who have just come from the gym. They are fragile, sensitive people whose physical bodies are more a contour of their souls...

The image of the pale, thin, sensitive artist is more the romantic ideal of the 19th century. I, on the other hand, teach my music academy students that they need to have the physical condition of an astronaut and nerves of steel. Our children today work under tremendous pressure, they need to be strong and have an endurable working capacity. Now we have our wonderful Kovács method, but still, musicians have a lot of problems. Our survey last year with 15-20-year-old students showed that eight out of ten children were already struggling with some kind of injuries, and one child had three to five different symptoms. It is not only problems with playing instruments, not only hand pain or disorders of the facial muscles of wind players and the vocal cords of singers, but also serious neurological disorders such as depression, panic attacks, anxiety, and even suicidal tendencies are common. Youth is the golden age of human life, a time of hope and happiness, and even then it can bring so much pain and suffering!

It takes around 16 years for a musician to become a stage-ready performer or a qualified teacher. By the time they reach this stage, they are already suffering from serious health problems if they don't get help.

How did Dr Géza Kovács approach the task?

He gave exercise classes and counselling. The exercise classes started very interestingly. Due to the lack of suitable rooms, the classes were held in the Small Hall of the Music Academy, now Solti Hall, where there was hardly any free space, and the music students had to work out between the rows of chairs. The professor worked with each one of them individually, telling them how to practice, how to organize their work and rest, how to use hot and cold water, advised them to go outside often to get some fresh air, and also talked about nutrition. Everyone who went to see him got well.

Image

P.E. in the Small Hall of the Music Academy, 1964. - Photo: dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor

How did this become music pedagogy?

I was one of his clients being the sickest student at the Academy of Music. After I recovered with the help of Professor Kovács, I thought that if this method worked for me, it would work for my students, too. Initially, I just wanted to use some of the elements of the movement program as a relaxation before music lessons for the children who were tired after school. We played with balloons and balls for a few minutes each class. After about four months, something happened that I hadn't expected. Even the most clumsy child developed a dexterity in his hands. It was a miracle, because the initial stage of learning to play an instrument is usually a very difficult one, and it takes a long time to get the instrument to sound nicely in the hands of little children. But this method speeds up the process considerably.

It's a kind of "musical brain surgery" that transforms the nervous system: it builds into the brain programmes that lay the foundations for musical skills.

Did you have to endure any problems, offences?

Oh, yes. There were plenty of difficulties with the superiors and with the authorities. At first, parents complained, saying that they were not paying for their children to play ball in music class. My director, bless his memory, who supported my experimental work, provided a courtyard classroom with no view from the outside. It was a tough struggle, sometimes the experimental program became a real 'secret curriculum'. Today it is an accepted university subject, under the name of Music Movement Development.

Image

An exercise of the Kovács Method - Photo: Kovács Method Facebook page

I have seen a photograph of Dr. Géza Kovács participating in an autopsy with his students.

Dr. Miklós Réthelyi, Professor of Anatomy, former Rector of the Medical University (former Minister), was a participant in our movement classes for many years. At our request, he regularly gave us autopsy demonstrations. These demonstrations were part of our theoretical education. The Kovács Method teacher trainees still receive solid anatomical training today.

Can the Kovács method help with stage fright?

Of course it can! Warming up before a performance can have a magical effect on the nervous musician. Of course, let's not imagine the musicians jumping up and down in their formal dresses! This gentle warm-up calms down the mad adrenaline rush that shakes the musician's whole body before a performance. The movement acts as a kind of beneficial oxygen spray, normalizing hormone- and nerve control.

During the gentle warm-up movements, the character simply forgets to be nervous.

The dreadful vegetative symptoms of stage fright, the tremors, the pounding heartbeat, the anxiety, the visceral complaints disappear, leaving nothing but eager excitement and focused attention.

Dr Géza Kovács was famous not only for his methods but also for his charismatic personality and radiance.

He was a loving, reassuring, and motivating person. He was characterized by thoughtfulness, gentleness, empathy, and infinite modesty. He often stressed that he had only established his method and would not have time to develop it. Indeed, he laid the foundations, I put up the walls, and then my students will put the roof on the building. Let this method be a treasure for everyone, let it be introduced into mainstream education! This is no longer a dream. The Kovács method has been included in the training of special needs teachers since 2007. Teachers use it effectively in the education of children with atypical development.

I saw a skipping rope, and a colourful balloon in the pictures, and I even felt like going in for a lesson.

Games, laughter, balloons - these also help you recover physically and mentally. The relaxing balloon game is undoubtedly one of the most attractive elements of the Kovács Method training program. But in addition to them, there are tens of thousands of strengthening, relaxing, stretching and dexterity-building movements., that make up the whole repertoire.

Image

Dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor receiving the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, civil division, in 2023 - Owner of the picture: dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor

I can't resist asking: didn't you fall a little in love with Professor Kovács?

Of course, I did, and I was not the only one. He had such an attractive personality that he charmed everyone, but he was a family man, a family-loving man, a stable personality, and extremely fair to everyone, so we admired him from afar. He had morals and infinite integrity. That's why people took his advice. I was a very weak student in fragile health, so my piano teacher József Gát sent me to him. However, there was no way I wanted to go to the 'Kovács lessons', because I had terrible experiences of gymnastics lessons in high school. But I finally convinced myself to go to the Small Hall of the Music Academy, where he was teaching.

I watched, fascinated, as the colourful balloons floated towards the ceiling like planets in a planetarium.

It's not a PE class, it's a miracle, I said to myself, and I felt I would be stuck with it for life.

Dr. Zsuzsanna Pásztor was born on 14 June 1935 in Szeged. She spent her childhood in Szentes, where she started to study music. She completed her high school studies in Budapest, at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, and graduated from the Academy of Music in 1960 with a degree in piano pedagogy. She is a lecturer at the Department of Teacher Training at the Liszt Academy of Music and at the Institute of Art Mediation and Music at the Faculty of Humanities of the Eötvös Loránd University. For her high quality work she has been awarded the János Apáczai Csere Prize, the Príma Prize and the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, civil division.
 

What did you want to be as a child?

At the age of six or seven, an architect. I even designed and drew specific house plans at home with a ruler. Then, in fourth or fifth grade, I had the idea of becoming a hairdresser! My mum reassured me that she would support me in anything I wanted to do, as long as I was happy when I decided to become a coach instead.

You thought about it so early?

When I was twelve, I decided that this was what I wanted to do. I was already playing judo and we didn't have a club coach, so I joined the younger ones as a coach and accompanied them to competitions. But I had always been playing sports from the age of six, – water polo, gymnastics, wrestling, judo – and, like all sporty kids, I wanted to be an Olympic champion. That plan went off the rails...

How did you find out that something was wrong?

As a judo player, I was already at the top of the sport, and a member of the junior national team when my eyesight started to deteriorate rapidly.

At 16, I was sitting at school and I couldn't see the board... At first, I joked about it, saying that everyone was writing and I had nothing to do because I couldn't see, but then we went from one doctor to the other to find out what was going on. First, I was diagnosed with a type of corneal lesion that cannot be corrected with glasses.

What is the name of the disease?

Keratoconus. The essence is that the cornea is thicker or thinner, more or less mountainous or valley-like, and you can't do anything about these "topographical conditions". I went to a doctor who thought that there was a genetic predisposition behind the development of the disease, but he examined every available family member and found no evidence of it. In fact, it’s never really been found out what the cause was.

Are both your eyes affected in the same way?

No, they were different. I first heard the name of the disease around 1991, when I was 17, and within a year or two I had laser eye surgery on my left eye, with which I could only see four or five percent at that time. The right one was still functioning at 30 percent. For a few months after the operation, the left one came up to that level, too but then it suddenly started to fall back. Then I found out that there was another problem...

What exactly?

In the meantime, a glaucoma had developed, and there was really nothing to be done. I can't see with my left eye today, the right one has been at six to eight percent – for decades now. There is no medical explanation for why it has remained so unchanged, because the disease is supposed to progress gradually, with four stages, the fourth being blindness.

Can you help me imagine how much you can see with your right eye?

Well, at an eye test, you have to sit down in a chair and read the numbers on a board, right? If you can read the largest number on it, that means you can see ten percent, but I can't even see that, maybe only from close up.

For me, there is no such thing as sharp, everything is blurred. I can't see the faces, only the shape of the head.

How did you learn to live with that? You seem very positive to me now, but I guess it wasn't always like that.

I think people around me would agree that it was relatively easy for me to cope. I'm not going to lie, there were minor lows, but not prolonged traumatic periods. Maybe because it was a process, it didn't happen overnight. The body gets used to the new condition. Now that you ask, I remember that in the mid-nineties I took a team of children to a competition and a girl sitting opposite me asked me why I read so strangely. We started talking and she remarked on how naturally I spoke about it. Of course, because that's my natural condition.

As you were coming through the parking lot towards the building and we met, I wouldn't have guessed from the way you moved that you were visually impaired. You didn't look unsteady at all, you didn't have a white cane...

In the sport of the visually impaired, they say, our residual vision is measurable. But how we use that residual is immeasurable. It's very individual, how you experience it. I think I can see from memory. With my brain, because I can hardly see with my eyes. When I went to the doctor for the disability check-up, the doctor asked me who I came with. I said, no one, I came alone. Where's the white cane? I don't have one. But there’s no way you can get around with your kind of eyesight! I said well, I don’t know how I do it, but I manage. I had a book by Attila József in my hand, and he asked me what it was for. I said, I had to wait an hour, so I spent it usefully. But can I read? I said, well they’d taught me in first grade at the elementary school and, amazingly, I haven't forgotten it ever since. He says, stop joking man, there's no such thing. I say, there must be because I read.

Are your other senses and abilities more alert?

I use my memory more effectively.

In training, I can identify everyone from a distance by their body type, hair colour, belt colour, but I have to keep all this information in mind.

What happened to competing after the diagnosis?

I stopped for a year and a half or maybe for two years, and as the coaching job became uncertain, too, I went to study physical education and geography at ELTE and got my diploma. History would have been a better choice besides physical education, and I was also good in Russian and English, but I couldn't do them for different reasons. During my university years, a doctor suggested that in my condition I should give up teaching altogether, but one of my teachers at a watersport camp encouraged me by saying: "man, you're not giving up, are you?" For those words, I will always be grateful. After graduation, I taught for four years in a village near my home until I learned that I could play judo as a visually impaired person and even participate in the Paralympics. I was at a coaching course in Rome when I found out that there would soon be a qualifying European Championships to qualify for Sydney.
I entered with Gábor Vincze, who is also blind, we started preparing, and we both won medals – I became the European champion – so we both qualified for the Olympic Games. It is true that I lost my job because they did not know about my illness, which I could no longer hide as a Paralympian. I admit that I avoided the medical check-ups until then, and they refused to employ a PE teacher who could barely see.

Image

Photo: Adrián Szász

Meanwhile, you were already teaching at the School for the Blind, and then you focused on sports again...

And at the same time I was also training intact competitors, having graduated from the Hungarian University of Sports Science earlier.

At the School for the Blind, I taught the children to fall in a special training course, because many wouldn't even imagine how useful this kind of knowledge is when you are blind for preventing accidents...

By the way, when I teach judo to blind kids, I treat them like sighted children, except that when teaching technique, I have to hold their hands and feet and show them the movement. It's not easy, because judo is a difficult sport even for the sighted, and there is an opponent who usually wants to push us out... But when there were 15-20 blind children in the room, I didn't lead any of them to the other, they shouted and found each other by sound.

How did you become a Paralympic bronze medallist?

From the moment I knew there was a way for me to enter, my dream was to win a medal in the Paralympic Games since I couldn't do it at the Olympics. We trained as hard as the others, went through the same training camps. We did the combat training together with the able-bodied sportsmen, but we did the conditioning training with Gabi Vincze. I could not win a medal in Sydney, so I wanted to stop, but the national captain convinced me that the four years, which at the time seemed like forever – 1,400 days! – would pass quickly. Then it really did go by fast until Athens, where my dream came true in 2004!

Even though I was after an injury, it all came together: the bronze medal was a complete success.

Coaching has taken over the main role in your life for quite some time now. Since 2011, you have also been working as a coach for the Hungarian junior national team – and I want to stress that we are talking about the intact team.

Coaching is also a dream come true, even though I left the country in 2008 for a year and a half, moving to Ireland. I wanted to try myself in a different environment, where I became a fitness instructor. Besides improving my English, this detour also built my personality. I also started to appreciate characteristics that I previously hadn't, and when I came home I had the confidence to apply for the coaching the junior national team. Before that, I never thought I would be chosen, but I was. Some people doubted me, but time has proved me right: I've been doing it for thirteen years now. I am responsible for the men, but we also work with the women.

Since 2012, you have also been in charge of the visually impaired division as national captain...

The intensity of this varies because we haven't had a Paralympic judo competitor since Rio 2016, but we could have one again in Paris. I also chaired the Judo Committee of the International Federation of Sports for the Visually Impaired for eight years, and after Tokyo, another Hungarian took over from me. Since then I have been responsible for education on the committee. This is enough, alongside my other activities, so my family could see me sometime, with whom I live in Cegléd. Because I also like being at home.

How long have you been a father?

My partner and I have been together since 2016, and this is also related to the sport, as Anita's two older children, now in university, also played judo. Our little boy Benedek has just turned six, and he considers the older ones to be his real brothers, they have such a good relationship. I didn't really want him to take up my sport, but about two years ago he asked me when he could start... I couldn't say he couldn't, so he started, but he also swims. We had him tested to see if he had inherited my illness, but luckily he was fine.

As you look back on your journey, how do you feel: how much support and help have you received from others in relation to your illness, and how many obstacles have you encountered?

I am very grateful to everyone who encouraged me and supported me! And if someone wanted to put obstacles in my way, that didn't bother me, I wouldn’t let them.

I think that the majority of people don't necessarily say or think something out of malice, but rather out of lack of information. They don't know what to think, which can lead to them saying or doing something offensive at first sight. But I know what I am capable of. I am unlikely to drive a spaceship or a plane, that is something that is not in my life. Well, driving a car, too, but other than that, I'll do anything. From my son Benedek's point of view, we are a family where it's always mum who drives because dad can't see properly. For him and us, that's how life is.
 

Where frozen meals and leftover pastries helped to get out of the slump

The row of houses blend into the quiet idyll of the Bükk mountains, but the early evening breeze brings a cheerful chatter from one of them. A teenage boy is emptying a bucket full of dirty water as the final stage of a car wash. A girl, a little younger, looking after the little ones in the garden, lets us in through the gate. As I make friends with the teddy-bear-shaped dog, she cries out enthusiastically, "'The babies are out next door!" - And she bends over the fence. But there is no shortage of children in their place, either, as István Fenyvesi and Andrea Fenyvesiné Pákozdi have a whole football team of children of their own.

The oldest is 23 years old and the baby of the family is four.

In birth order, they are Máté, Domonkos, Gellért, Réka, Teréz, Gergely, Fülöp, Rita, Bernadett, Dániel, and Benedek. The older ones are away from home, earning their own bread and pocket money. Máté is working full-time in Budapest, Domonkos is studying at the university, in a dual training scheme. Gellért is saving for college in Gödöllő after graduation, while playing folk music in an amateur band as a hobby. Réka is spending a few weeks at Lake Balaton, not on a holiday but babysitting. According to István, it's a kind of necessity, as they can't afford everything. "I'm constantly worried about whether it will be enough, whether we can pay it, what needs to be delayed. The kids are growing and we need more and more, but we've left it up to God before and so far we've always managed to make ends meet. When I say no to something because there is no money for it, Andi starts praying and it works out. Once when the nearby sanatorium was being renovated, they filled our fridge with frozen food. When our debts piled up and our car broke down, we inherited." Gergő, 13, also remembers when they lived in Gyál and got leftovers from the bakery on weekends. And Andi remembers the old Skoda car her dad's friend had given them, so she could carry her then four-year-old Máté to kindergarten.

Where the gynaecologist acknowledged another pregnancy with obscene words

The Fenyvesi family seems to like taking risks. Not out of recklessness, just because of their trust in God. They belong to a Catholic community with whom they are walking the neocatechumenal way. That is why they have received all their children as a gift from God. "We saw before us an example of how to pass on life as God's co-workers. We know several couples who, after hearing the call, have taken on six children in addition to one or two. And if someone wants to have a child, but does not have one, they must accept it with trust," says the mother of the large family who has prayed through all her pregnancies. Máté and Gellért were born at 32 weeks, the latter with pneumonia. After that, the doctor asked, "Andrea, you're not having any more kids, are you?"

It was only six months later when the next baby answered the question, which the gynaecologist acknowledged with obscene words.

During a miscarriage, Andi's uterus was punctured. "I had to learn my limits because every pregnancy had its problems. Including my five miscarriages, we have 16 children."

Six years ago, before the arrival of the tenth new arrival, the Fenyvesi family made a bold decision: they gave up their crowded but familiar home in Gyál, István's leading position in a car repair shop, and moved to a picturesque village near Eger, Felsőtárkány. Many people thought the idea was crazy, but they called it a mission. The Archbishop of Eger invited the neocatechumenal community to come and evangelize. It is not compulsory to answer this invitation, but the Fenyvesi family, together with the older children, said yes. The decision brought new challenges: finding a house, a kindergarten, schools, and a job in the area. István calls it a miracle how they found their current home at the last minute, before giving birth and starting school. "Every time a baby arrived, I was afraid that my life would change again and I would have to give up something. But we were never left without a solution, so I was finally able to let go of my worry."

Image

The Fenyvesi couple, Andrea and István - Photo: Fenyvesi family

Where there is room for eleven, sometimes there is room for thirty

While we chat around the dining table, sometimes the younger ones jump up and run out into the garden to play. When they get hungry, Rita makes them some sandwiches. The little ones are also bustling about on weekdays. "There's no barrier in front of them. If they want to, they go into the big ones' rooms or shout if they won't let them in. " István says with a laugh. "It's obviously annoying if they're too loud, but after a while, you can turn off the stimulus. If I'm working on the laptop and they're talking to me, after a while I feel guilty because they are more important and they take advantage of that." 

"Their personalities are different, of course. Some don't need as much attention or have given up. The other goes on and on, asking questions, sitting on laps, crawling on necks until they finally get the attention."

Gergő also reveals other handy tips, such as how to have a great conversation while setting the table or doing other chores. "When they show up and start fussing around me, I know they have something to say," Andi smiles in agreement.
In a family this size, it's hard to notice when the total number of people increases. "At first it's unusual to have one more person, but everyone fits into our family. It's just people who look at us strangely," says Tessza, who is about to start high school. There is a war for good seats in the minibus and cliques have been formed, but when they leave home they still move together. Gergő would really miss having no one to talk to when he's bored.
The Fenyvesi family is flexible about travel; those who can't fit in the nine-passenger car take the bus. They are also good at hospitality. Andi and István recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Dozens of guests came to the event, and 30 of them stayed overnight at the house in Felsőtárkány. The children ganged up and preferred to sleep on the floor, next to each other, rather than in their own place. They set up folding tables in the living room, cook outside in fine weather, and no one was left hungry.

Where the value of the gift does not matter

There is a kindergarten and primary school in Felsőtárkány, and István works locally. He drops off the little ones in the mornings, and Andi picks them up in the afternoons with a bit of shopping. They are also blessed to be able to go to folk dance, karate, drama, and music classes at the local Village Hall. The high school students study in Eger and are self-sufficient. 
For more than two decades, Andi focused only on family, but when her youngest, Benedek, turned three, finances forced her to work. "I was temporarily employed as a nurse in the hospital, but it was difficult to get back into the job, the probation period was spent learning new things. When it ended, I soon got another offer. In hindsight, I understood that the initial two months were a stepping stone that God had prepared." 

"I am now a full-time district nurse in three villages. It's a joy to meet newborn babies and pass on my experience to parents."

When Andi gets home from work, the first thing she does is check the tasks. After all, no one should be exempt from housework. Two by two, they are assigned to tidy up the rooms, and there's also a chart on the wall to show who's loading the dishwasher, preparing dinner, or setting the table. István is the chef, it's his hobby. On weekends, there are usually one or two soups and two or three main courses, but weekday dinners are simpler. It's a big help that they get a lot of vegetables from Grandma. The neighbour's also very helpful, willing to look after the children, bake cakes and sew for them.
Although finances are tight, there are personal as well as shared gifts under the Christmas tree. "We mainly buy necessities, but if someone wants something more serious, like a bicycle, the family pulls together," says István, who received a pencil with a homemade ornament from Betti for his last birthday, and Rita got candy and non-alcoholic beer from her pocket money. Because what counts here is not the value of the gift, but the thoughtful love.

Sponsored content.

Two Hungarian Nobel Prizes in two days. It would be hard to argue with the claim that this was one of the most outstanding weeks in our country's scientific history. People walked around from Budapest to Szombathely to Békéscsaba as they did when the Hungarian football team beat one of the strongest teams on the continent: proudly, with their heads held high. Because at such times we feel that this is a joint success, the success of a nation whose most outstanding members are applauded by the world. And even though Ferenc Krausz lives in Germany and works as a professor at the University of Munich, he accepted the award as a Hungarian scientist: "My Nobel Prize is a Hungarian prize," he said.

Science for the physicist, magic for the layman

His work looks exactly as we imagine it. Electrical wires piled up to the top, seemingly in a tangled mess, metal boxes with functions we can't imagine, lasers, and all sorts of dazzling devices on metal tables and desks with holes in them, which we don't even need to name because for us it's pure magic. And that need not be understood by everyone; it is enough that only exceptional minds are allowed by God to enter the gate of secret knowledge, which we can only guess at the effect it will have on our lives.

For the scientist, it is possible to do what is inconceivable to anyone else: interpret time in billionths of a second, and even take a picture of this incomprehensibly short moment in time.

For those who may have last heard of atoms and electrons back in their school days, the research for which Ferenc Krausz was awarded the Nobel Prize with two other colleagues, Pierre Agostini, and Anne L'Huillier, is also of interest: “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”

Let's not be frightened by the word "attosecond", which is the unimaginably short moment of time in physics mentioned earlier. "Because electrons are more than a thousand times lighter than the atom and faster, you need a light pulse of extraordinary speed to capture their motion, but this cannot be produced in the visible light range, only much shorter wavelengths than light, so-called ultraviolet or extreme ultraviolet light," Ferenc Krausz explained to Élet és Tudomány (‘Life and Science’) magazine.

The experiment
"An excitation laser was fired into a container of noble gas, where the interaction caused the laser to excite the atoms in the gas, which emitted additional electromagnetic radiation (overharmonics). At certain intervals, these electromagnetic waves come into phase with each other and, in a very brief moment of time, are greatly amplified by the principle of interference, and then extinguish each other in the next very brief moment. A wave activity runs on the attosecond scale from large excursion to extinction. This is one billionth of a billionth of a second, or 10^–18 seconds. There is a special branch of physics that deals with processes that take place in such a short time, called attosecond physics, which is a young branch of laser physics," explains physicist Péter Mati when asked.

If we imagine that we can continuously click with a camera and compile the resulting images as a film, the camera used by the physicist will take real-time pictures of the structural changes in atoms, i.e. the dynamics of the electrons in the atoms, at a much faster "shutter speed" than an ordinary camera. These images can also be assembled into a "film", capturing the changes that occur in a few attoseconds.

Help's on the way!

But you may wonder what we can do with the knowledge we have gained from Ferenc Krausz and his fellow scientists. 
"Perhaps the most promising application of attophysics is in medicine. Illuminating cell samples with attosecond light can vibrate the electrons in their structure. In the cell, the molecules thus vibrated also emit radiation, which, after signal processing, can reveal certain differences between a healthy and a diseased cell, even in the initial stages of disease. Research along these lines is already underway under Krausz's leadership at the recently established Center for Molecular Fingerprinting," says Péter Mati.

One of the goals of the Centre is to make infrared molecular fingerprints a cornerstone of next-generation molecular diagnostics, opening up new ways to comprehensively assess the health of the population and detect diseases early. Today, we can only imagine how this discovery will change our quality of life, but in a few years' time, the technology of attosecond physics is likely to become part of our everyday lives.

And what is the mind of a real scientist like? Instead of leaning back in his armchair and resting on his laurels, he's already thinking of new challenges.

Future projects will focus on mapping the complex processes that take place in biological molecules. This could be best achieved by capturing the attosecond flashes of X-rays, which have wavelengths comparable to or shorter than the size of atoms and can therefore capture the movement of electrons at the atomic or molecular level. This would allow their motion to be reproduced in any complex system, which would be very important for detecting the progress of diseases, for example.

It is possible that Hungary could make a major contribution to the creation of the first electron video camera, which could also be used in healthcare. And there is something else: electrotechnology could be used not only to protect our health directly, but also indirectly: knowing and understanding how electrons move and what causes them to move could help to make computers process data at even higher speeds, or the internet faster. This would not only increase data traffic but would also make it possible to predict natural disasters faster.

One for all

Ferenc Krausz is so much of a non-individualist that as soon as he heard that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize, his first thought was how many colleagues' work had contributed to this achievement, he told the newspaper "Magyar Nemzet" ('Hungarian Nation'). Another important issue for the scientist is to stand up for issues that are important to all of us, such as education.

Within a newly established cooperation (SKOLA+ program), he provides financial support to primary and secondary school teachers who undertake to tutor children in need or from highly disadvantaged backgrounds, be they Ukrainian, Hungarian, or German.

On his visits home, Krausz saw the masses of people fleeing the war and was so moved that he and his colleagues at his research base set up a charity association specifically to support the victims of the war in Ukraine. A significant part of his current Nobel Prize prize money will also be distributed by the association he set up. This is not the first time that the Hungarian physicist has donated to charity: he has already donated a large part of the Wolf Prize he won and the whole of the Frontiers of Knowledge Prize.

Dr Katalin Karikó received the call from Stockholm at 4 a.m. on 2 October 2023 to become one of this year's Nobel laureates. She has spent 24 years researching the mysterious messenger RNA, hoping to find a way to communicate with the body. To use the message-carrying molecule to deliver a biological blueprint to the body that could help with cellular healing.

It took five years for her to publish the results because the scientific press failed to see the enormous value of the discovery. The message we want to get to our cells reaches its destination today. The technique developed by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissmann could in the future also play a role in the treatment of cancer, stroke, or hypertension.

After all, most healing actually depends on our ability to communicate in the right way... Are we sending the right message? Do we have the right messenger? Can we get the message - physical or spiritual - to where it is needed? Is the message inspiring enough to trigger action?

Katalin Karikó's struggles in her private life and in her scientific research show similarities as if she had always seen the things she experienced in the world on a smaller scale, under her microscope.

The girl from Kisújszállás has come a long way to get her message to the right place, and this message could and will be able to shape the destiny of mankind.

"One day, a guy walked into the lab and said they had brought lipofectin for a beta test, it would bring in nucleic acid, and I immediately ran up and said that's what I needed," Katalin said of the moment when her research had a breakthrough. But to get this unexpected gift, she needed to be in the lab with all her knowledge at the right moment.

Katalin Karikó was born in Kisújszállás, her father was a butcher, and her mother an accountant. She went to the local primary school and high school, then became a student at the University of Szeged. During one summer holiday, she locked herself up with her language book for two months, and that's how she learned English in Kisújszállás, never taking a language course, never even crossing the city limits.

Her university lecturer often quoted János Selye's credo, who was then emerging on the international scene: focus on what you can change and don't spend time on what you don't have control over. Let us not try to change others, but simply do our job. 35 years later, Katalin heard these words echoed at a Selye event. "Progress can only be achieved with ideas that are vastly different from those currently accepted," said the chemist and stress researcher János (Hans) Selye, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize 17 times during his lifetime.

Katalin Karikó brought János Selye's worldview with her from her alma mater and incorporated it into her personality.

She started her scientific work at the Biological Research Centre of Szeged in the 1980s, but after a few years of research, she was dismissed due to downsizing and laboratory technical limitations. The family packed up and Katalin got a job at Temple University in Pennsylvania when their daughter Zsuzsanna was two and a half. Katalin wanted to run home after a week because the atmosphere at the university was overwhelming and she missed her friends and relatives.

"I was forced to rely on my talent," she recalls. In American scientific life, jobs ran from grant to grant, and work often went into the night because you had to prove your research direction with successful experiments. How could the mysterious messenger RNA be induced from the outside to instruct the cell to create useful molecules, build medicines to heal the body, or simulate an infection to which the body could produce antibodies?

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has tried to apply the method in the treatment of stroke patients. The basic idea was that it would be worthwhile to dilate blood vessels in the brain area with impaired blood supply by RNA instruction. The body uses a specific compound to do this, but this molecule transforms too quickly in the blood to be delivered to the right place by injection. However, the method did not work initially, with the body treating the partisan RNA as the enemy, identifying the messenger of healing as the enemy.

The secret was that we had to learn about the body's friend-enemy recognition system, the appearance of RNA molecules in our own cells, or as the Katalins called it, "body painting".

It turned out that our cells carry our body's dress code, and access is only possible in the dress code!

Once they found this out, they managed to smuggle their own message into the cells, repainted as friendly. The mRNA vaccines when entering the body use this idea to induce the cells to produce a protective substance.

"I am not a hero, the doctors and nurses who went to the patients are the heroes, I was just having fun in the laboratory," Katalin said with a smile. For decades she was sure of her truth, even though she was subjected to a lot of scientific hostility, lost her job several times, and crossed the ocean to do what she believed in. More than once, she created a new way of life for her family in a foreign environment. When she finally succeeded in getting nucleic acid into the cell, she celebrated with chocolate hazelnuts. When troubles got too much for her, she drew strength from a song by the Hungarian singer, Zorán entitled Diamonds and Gold.

Sources of quotes:
https://medicalonline.hu/kitekinto/cikk/szerdan_jelenik_meg_kariko_katalin_oneletrajza   
https://mta.hu/tudomany_hirei/kariko-katalin-nobel-dijas-111642 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJisRE5BwXo&t=1952s 
 

She lost one parent painfully early: she was just 11 when her 42-year-old father died of lung disease. Her brothers were drafted to fight during the war, and only two of the three returned home safely, as Sári néni's 17-year-old brother was shot dead by the Germans for not obeying an order.

He was given the order to blow up the bridge at Komárom, which leads from Slovakia to Hungary even today. 

"He was a very handsome boy with curly blond hair and blue eyes. My mother found out about his death because my brother's landlord had witnessed the incident and buried my brother in his garden. When the soldiers who had been buried all over the place began to be collected, the authorities approached my mother saying that there would be an excavation and she could confirm her son's body. There were two large brown birthmarks on my brother's feet close to one another, and that's how my mother identified him."

Life and work in the Habsburg castle in Alcsút

Sári néni started working in 1938, before the Second World War broke out, at the Habsburg castle in Alcsút, where she served as a maid for six years. She was the youngest servant of all, having joined the family at the very young age of 13. She joined the Archduke's residence when her aunt, who was the maid to Archduchess Maria Augusta, wife of Archduke Joseph Augustus of Habsburg-Lotharingia, recommended her to the family. 
"I knew every nook and cranny of the castle. The building had at least 200 rooms, but there were also many bathrooms and other rooms.

I had to tidy five rooms and two long corridors every day.

You didn't have to do a major clean-up, but you always had to do a decent job."
Sári néni, like the other maids, lived in the castle, giving her an even better insight into the everyday life of the Archduke's family. It was not difficult for her to see how strict the governesses were with the noble children. Archduke Joseph Augustus' son, Joseph Franz of Habsburg-Lotharingia, had eight children. Sári néni can still remember two of them very well: she can clearly recall what Archduchess Kinga and Archduke Mihály were like as children. He was known to everyone as Mitu. 
"Poor little Archduke Mitu once cried so hard! I told the governess about it, and she said, "Sárika, that's what he's supposed to do!” I broke into tears hearing that sentence. In our house, no one ever said that a little child is supposed to cry, even though there were nine of us brothers and sisters. And the Archduchess Kinga was about five or six years old when her governess caught her primping in front of a mirror and as a punishment, she told her she couldn't leave the house that day."

"They didn't want her to brag about her beauty, even though she was a very beautiful little girl."

Fleeing from the Archduke's residence

The staff serving in the castle of Alcsút were treated in a privileged manner by the archducal family: they were rewarded with new clothes, shoes, or boots on holidays, and no one was singled out for special treatment. But they also helped the people of the village and those in need. They also supported several large families, where, when the girls got married, they were each given dowries. When they were forced to leave the family estate at the end of the war, they hoped to return within two weeks, but this was not to be. In Sári néni’s opinion, they did not deserve this cruel treatment.
Finally, in 1944, the castle was burnt down by the Russian army. Aunt Sári was still working there then, but fortunately, she managed to leave the building in time. Two officers accompanied her home - they on horseback, while Sári néni made the journey on foot. She took only what she could carry with her from the castle, the rest of her belongings were all consumed by the flames.
"As I was leaving with another maid, part of the castle was already so in flames that it was shocking to look at! The two officers told us not to stop and look around, otherwise, we would have burned inside.

Everything we had was left there. All our beautiful clothes, coats, shoes, tablecloths, how could I have carried them all out of the building in my hands?

We gave some of the worst of the Archduke's clothes to German soldiers, we made them change because we were so sorry to leave  everything behind."

Image

Photo: László Katona

In search of a valuable gold bar

Shortly before the castle was burnt down, Sári néni underwent a severe ordeal, as she was imprisoned in Bicske and interrogated along with several other maids. A valuable gold bar had disappeared from the noble family's estate, and the police questioned the staff of the castle about it.

"When it was my turn, the police asked me how many gold bars I had taken from the castle. I was very surprised, I told them to stop joking about it. Then, in front of my eyes, the Russians started beating up an elderly maid who had committed the crime. They told me that I would get the same treatment if the soldiers found the gold in our house. I told them that then I would never be beaten! They asked me if I was sure, and I said I was absolutely sure." 
Sári néni was not allowed to go home until the next morning. Then she was escorted home by police officers, which made her feel bad, as she was afraid of prejudice and knew that everyone in the village knew her. After that, there was another serious incident when Sári néni had to deal with the police. She was beaten up when she refused to go to forced labour because she was weakened by pneumonia, which had threatened her life before.

She was hit with a shotgun blast - she was lucky that she was well dressed, wearing several layers of clothing, so she was not seriously injured. 

"When I got sick, I had a very high fever, I couldn't eat. One of the military officers, who was also a doctor, asked me to undress so he could examine me. I didn't want to, and I didn't want to let him give me the penicillin injection, which was then coming into fashion, but we didn't know it yet. The doctor knelt down by my bed and begged me, "Let him give it to you, little girl, otherwise you'll die." I finally let him. He gave me three more injections in addition to the first one. He would have given me more, but he had to go on to other places. Thank God, I was healed!"

Image

Photo: László Katona

Graduating from eighth grade as a mother of two

On 3 February 1951, at the age of 26, Sári néni married the neighbour's son, the same man she went to school with. They had two children, a son and a daughter. She had a good relationship with her husband, but unfortunately, he died of a stroke after 20 years of marriage.
Sári néni was always good at school: her report card, which she still keeps, was full of straight A's. She attended eight classes in all, although the last two she completed as an adult and a mother of two. She graduated from eighth grade the same year as her own son.
"There was a math problem my son had trouble solving. I told him I would go and help him in a minute.

Then he said:” But you haven’t even learnt it yet!”

Nevertheless, I started to look into that problem. It was one with exponentiation. I noticed that he had missed a step. I told him that he should always pay attention and that he should always do a cross-check of everything. He was very grateful for the help."

Her heart went out to those in need

Sári néni loved not only to learn but also to work. After her years at the castle, she worked in a sewing factory, then in the local mayor's office, but she also worked as a caregiver. She had to look after people in three villages, going around to see if the needy had medicine and food. Even though she wasn't allowed to - and it wasn't in her job description - she selflessly helped those who needed it. 
"Sometimes I cooked them lunch. My folks at home hadn't even tasted my cooking and I was already taking it to the poor. And once an elderly lady hadn't had her wood chopped up because the lumberjack had fallen ill, so I sawed a day or two's worth for her."

Image

Photo: László Katona

Sári néni says that her life has flown by in a flash; she feels as if she had just been a kid. She never thought she would live to be so old. She says the secret of it all is that she is in God's grace.

She still reads the Bible regularly today, she says, because she believes it leads us straight.

She is happy that God has directed her life so that she could stay in her home village. All her memories are here, she could not go anywhere else, and she does not want to. Her family, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are close by and she loves them very much. One of her great-grandchildren told her that she wished Sári néni would never leave her. Not even when she is grown up!

From on-call to the Morca cave

Dr Zsófia Zádor, an anaesthesiologist and intensive care specialist, was on her way to her workplace, the Kenessey Albert Hospital in Balassagyarmat, on the morning of 3 September when her phone rang.

Within hours, it became clear that she had to leave for a faraway destination: Turkey.

The Morca cave in the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey had been the site of a caving expedition for days, but one of the team, American Mark Dickey, fell ill on 1 September while deep in the cave, suffering from abdominal pain and vomiting blood. On 2 September, his fiancée Jessica, who was also part of the team, contacted Dr. Dénes Ákos Nagy, the medical officer of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service (BMSZ), and asked him for advice on what medication she could give Mark to help him at the depth of 1,000 meters. From there, events accelerated, as by 3 September the man's condition had deteriorated and it became clear that rescue would be needed.

At 1276 meters deep, Morca Cave is the third deepest cave in Turkey. Discovered in 1996, the international cave exploration community has increased the number of known passages year after year with regular exploration expeditions. The 2023 expedition, of which Mark and Jessica were both members, aimed to explore the deepest part of the cave and to map new passages that have been discovered in recent years. They also wanted to collect samples of bacteria and fungi of unknown origin covering the wall surfaces.

The rescue, we now know, was a success – the Hungarian team members arrived home on the night of 14 September, and after a few hours' sleep, they gave a detailed account of what happened and how. 

"We are very good friends"

The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service was founded in 1961 and became an association thirty years later. They provide assistance to people in difficult situations in caves or other hard-to-reach places. Since their start, they have had hundreds of alerts, helping around 500 people, mainly within the borders, but this was not the first time they had been called abroad.

In this case, the Hungarians were the quickest to react in Europe: the situation of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service is unique among similar European organizations because they have two doctors on their team who are able to go down to such depths and work there.

One of them is Dr. Zsófia Zádor. 

"I've been hiking since I was a child, which must have had something to do with my fascination with this world," she begins when I ask her how a doctor becomes a caver. She says she started caving during her university years. On the afternoon of 3 September, four of them – Zsófia Zádor and three cave rescuers – boarded a plane from Budapest, arrived at the cave at dawn the next day, and after 13 hours of strenuous climbing, they made their way down to the patient.

Zsófia Zádor didn't know what to expect beforehand, as communication with the people deep down the cave was difficult. "I had a scenario in my head that the patient would no longer be waiting for me. I tried to ignore that one. The other was that we might meet halfway down on the rope," she says. In the end, a third, lucky scenario came true. Mark's paramedic fiancée, after coming out of the cave to ask for help, went back down to join Mark and his team in the deep. She was able to replenish fluids by intravenous infusion and was able to give antacids and medication to him, thus preventing his circulation from collapsing.

And what was the moment of meeting them like?

"Everyone was smiling, I remember that much. But Mark was very pale, which indicated that he had lost a lot of blood," Dr. Zádor recalls.

-  We are very good friends," says the doctor, as the members of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service have known the American caver for a long time.
"An exchange program between Hungarian and American caving instructors started eight years ago. Mark was the first instructor to come to Hungary from the US and then became actively involved in the Hungarian caving scene. So when he got sick, Jessica contacted me straight away," explains Medical Director Dénes Ákos Nagy.

Image

A moment of the rescue - Photo: Hungarian Cave Rescue Service

Intensive Care Unit at a depth of a thousand meters

The forced ICU was set up in a bivouac at a depth of 1,040 meters. (Bivouacs are small areas away from the water, having as much horizontal surface as possible, suitable for only a few people to sleep in down in the cave).
"It was interesting to create this small intensive care unit at a depth of a thousand meters. Different medical equipment kept coming down to me. I was constantly watching for side effects and kept trying to avoid complications," she explains.
In the meantime, blood products had to be obtained from the Turkish authorities, which were constantly being brought down by small teams.
"By the time the doctor got down, the patient had been bleeding for 30 hours. We knew that a gastroscopy was not possible. There was also no way to stop the bleeding, so we had to use continuous intensive therapy, which could treat the consequences of the bleeding." 

"It was like filling a leaky pot for six days until the patient could come to the surface," the medical director sums up. 

"The danger of gastrointestinal bleeding is that it can worsen or improve relatively quickly at any time. When I was down there, he had such an exacerbation. After the first blood transfusion Mark was fine, he felt he could come out on his own. I suggested that he should be brought out on a stretcher because I expected his condition to deteriorate. 6-7 hours before I left, he almost had another circulatory collapse, which was eventually prevented," says Zsófia Zádor. – When I felt he was better, I took a nap for two or three hours, but I told the others to wake me up if anything happened." During her days in the cave, the doctor also had her low points: she struggled with shoulder pain, and it was alarming for her when Mark's condition worsened.
"If we don't get there on time, he probably won't survive" – she says when I ask her what she thinks the chances would have been for the sick caver without medical help.  Finally, he was brought up on a stretcher, by which time Zsófia Zádor was already on the surface, having been replaced by Italian, Bulgarian, and Croatian doctors. Finally, on Monday 11 September, a few minutes before midnight, Mark Dickey was brought to the surface. The exact diagnosis was not known in the cave, but it was suspected to be a stomach ulcer. This was confirmed: Mark was taken by helicopter to the hospital after the rescue, where he was seen in a state of severe haemorrhage. He was given more blood and a gastroscopy was performed. He has now been discharged from intensive care.

Image

Mark Dickey during the rescue operation - Photo: Hungarian Cave Rescue Service

Two hundred people took part in the rescue 

The first four-member Hungarian team's flight ticket was bought by the president of the association, Dr. Miklós Nyerges. After that, two more Hungarian missions were able to travel with the help of the Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK), the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The purpose of the mission was to take additional medical equipment to the site, and to keep the first team alive with food and warm clothing.

29 Hungarian cave rescuers took part in the rescue: in addition to the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, the Bakony Cave Rescue Service and Hungarian cave explorers from Transylvania also helped.

At an international level, a total of 200 people took part in the operation. The situation was made easier by the fact that the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service is a voluntary organization, so they did not have to wait for the bureaucratic channels and an official invitation letter from the Turkish authorities – unlike the state-run services of other nations. "If we had to wait for that, Mark would not have survived," says Ákos Nagy.

The deepest cave in Hungary is 300 meters deep, compared to the Morca cave, which is situated at a depth of more than 1,000 meters. Right at the entrance, you are greeted by a ten-meter drop, so you have to use a full-body harness straight away. The cave system is divided by vertical shafts with horizontal passages in between. "You have to climb up the ropeways by your own human strength, there are no other mechanized solutions. Even the patient in the stretcher had to be carried up by hand," explains András Hegedűs, the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service’s head of operations.
The average temperature is 3-4 degrees Celsius all year round, with a humidity of 100 percent. Working in these conditions, and the lack of communication was also a problem, as between 1040 meters and 500 meters, there were no means of contact or only with the help of couriers. The fact that, after Dr Zádor went down to the patient, those on the surface did not receive any meaningful information about what was happening down there for two days is a good illustration of this problem.

The rescue operation in numbers 
During the rescue operation, 1,500 meters of rope and 400 other devices (carabiners, belaying points) were used. Sometimes there were close to a hundred passages on a single section of rope in a single day, so if something broke, it had to be replaced. A special ropeway was built to bring the patient to the surface on a stretcher: 2,500 meters of rope and 1,000 pieces of equipment were needed. 36 hours was the longest someone could stay down there without sleeping. Fifty descents were made by the Hungarian team, and more than 2,000 working hours were invested in the rescue.

The rescue service has five to seven emergency calls a year, and such an organization can only be sustained by professional caving volunteers who go to caves and practice in their free time because it is their hobby, their passion. 

Their operations are funded by the 1% of tax offerings, but recently they have also received specific donations.

(In Hungary, you can request that 1% of your previous year's paid personal income taxes be given to support a non-profit organization – translator’s note)
They hope that they will be supported even when there is no such large-scale action. Simply so that they can exist and be available when they are needed.
 

We've been friends for 15 years. I remember standing in line at the cafeteria of the Reformed High School in Tata, when you walked up to me, we didn’t know each other but complimented my hair. You have a kind word for everyone, and you always listen to others with attention and interest. Where does this receptivity come from?
It's a spiritual character trait, but I owe a lot to my mother, my childhood role models and perhaps also to adversity. My mother raised me as a single mom, on a cleaning lady's salary, in a small one-room apartment, yet I had a wonderful childhood. We spent a lot of time together and had an intimate relationship – and still do. The school years were not easy because the kids excluded me and often made mean remarks on my origins; I never understood why my classmates did that, because at home it was just natural that we were Roma. Despite all this, I never considered myself a victim.

I don't like the victim role, because it reinforces prejudice.

This start helped me to have a different perspective, I really appreciate what I got from my mother and everything we had.

You were the first in your family to get a diploma and a language certificate. You are a social worker and special needs teacher, you are fluent in German and speak English at an advanced level. What motivated you?
My mother supported and motivated me to study hard, set goals and achieve them. For me, she is the strongest person I know, because she sacrificed her whole life for me, and she is still doing everything for me and my son, living with us in Berlin. I am a single mother and my mother's presence means a lot. She has been through a lot of trials and tribulations, as she was only 15 years old when she was orphaned. She was never able to continue her studies because she had to work, and the hard physical work caused her to develop a number of chronic illnesses, which she still suffers from today. She raised me on a cleaning lady's salary, yet she gave me everything, I never felt short of anything.

Did you have any other role models?
Apart from my mother, I was helped on my way by exemplary people, who were truly great to me, such as Dr. Attila Kálmán, the late founder and former principal of the Reformed High School of Tata, my godmother, or my mother's primary school class teacher, Iza Körmendi, who followed and helped us throughout our lives. Their presence and love meant a lot. The words of Dr. Attila Kálmán are still with me today, his motto was "Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be glory". He lived by this. He was not only my headmaster, my class teacher, my teacher, but also my greatest role model after my mother.

I miss such simple, ordinary, yet great people in today's world who are lights in their own communities.

Last but not least, of course, my faith in God was a big driving force.

How did you find your Roma identity?
Despite all the support, many people made me feel different. Apart from my family, I had no contact with other Roma people in Tata. This changed at college. I studied at Wesley John College of Ministry, in the eighth district in Budapest, where I had several Roma classmates. During those years, I won many scholarships: from Roma Veritas, Roma Education Fund, Cinka Panna Roma Cultural Association. Twice I was awarded a Republican scholarship, which had nothing to do with my Roma background – I earned it for my good academic performance. Later I was also awarded a scholarship to the Central European University Roma English Language program, where my classmates were all Romanian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian Roma. This was a very defining experience in my life and in strengthening my identity. I made lifelong friends there and gained a lot of knowledge and experience. Among other things, I met the girl who later referred me to Germany's largest organization for prostitutes and drug addicts, the Drogennotdienst. It was the first full-time job I ever had, working with Hungarian Roma prostitutes and drug addicts.

Image

Éva with her mother at her graduation - Photo: Éva Ádám

When I visited you in Berlin years ago, you showed me where you worked in the red light district. For me it was terrifying, I only saw the physical and mental misery and the heartbreaking life-stories of women. But you showed me around enthusiastically, introduced me to some of your clients, asked them how they were doing.Where did this passion come from, this calling to help those who are at their deepest?
I found my calling when I was 15. My German teacher, Eszter Bagdán, gave me a book by Teri Szűcs. The title is: Nobody is here by chance - stories of residents and staff from the KIMM drug center in Ráckeresztúr (‘Senki sincs itt véletlenül – lakók és munkatársak történetei a KIMM ráckeresztúri drogterápiás otthonból’). It is filled with the recovery stories of serious drug addicts who got clean through faith in God and therapy. Eight years later, I did my thesis on how deep faith in God helps people to quit. Besides my job as a social worker I did a year of volunteering in Germany that led me to become a special education teacher working with children with disabilities.

I'm really passionate about helping people, and I've taken as many opportunities as possible during my studies to gain practical knowledge.

I was an intern in the psychiatric unit of the Merényi Gusztáv Hospital, I had the opportunity to study with Dr. Gábor Zacher, I volunteered in several rehabs, women's programs and the Kékpont needle exchange.

At the beginning of your career you were not working with addicts, but provided low-threshold care for Hungarian prostitutes in Berlin. Why?
True, but there was a lot of overlap. I had a total of 120 street prostitute clients. Dr. Attila Kálmán always told me that the most important thing is to be human in all circumstances. That's essentially what I helped the girls with as a street social worker. I gave them condoms, accompanied them when they had abortions, translated, helped them deal with everyday things and listened to them. And the organization offered them a warm shelter. Since they were also involved in drug rehabilitation, I also participated in such a program as a therapist. I can proudly say that I also helped a German lady who had been a heroin addict since she was 12 years old to quit. She started taking drugs as a child in the infamous Zoo train station in West Berlin. The station, due to the failed German family policy of the time, was home to many homeless teenagers in a commune where, in addition to hard drug use, underage prostitution developed. This poignant story has been turned into a book by Christiane F. entitled Zoo Station, a memoire. It is a devastating account of Christiane's years at Zoo Station as a child. The story was later adapted into a film.

You have seen many difficult human fates, very few people can bear it. Was there anyone who had a big impact on you?

I could go on and on. There was a lot of atrocity among the mafia organisations from different nationalities organised on the streets.

Once a nine-month pregnant prostitute ran in with a knife in her back, but there was also a case when a conflict between Bulgarian and Hungarian girls ended with our office being sprayed with pepper spray.

Of course, besides the many difficult stories, there were also a few success ones: for example, a Hungarian girl who had worked as a prostitute for many years was turned to Christ. She gave up her life in Berlin and prostitution and moved back to Hungary to be with her family. 
Besides, the work itself was special for me, a Hungarian Roma woman, because I could see women who had grown up in the Roma tradition – where virginity and early marriage are important values – but were forced into prostitution. When the Transylvanian Roma girl in a traditional skirt and headscarf came in for 100 condoms, I was shocked. Half an hour later, she showed up looking completely different, dressed in the clothes she needed for her job. It is very ambivalent to see when individual tradition clashes with prostitution.

Society stigmatises these women. How did you see them?
What I learned is that these girls are very strong. Without exception, they come from traumatised backgrounds. Most of them are undocumented and some are living on the streets. They also struggle with addictions: to their pimps, gambling or drugs.

I learned that in street prostitution there is no such thing as motivation, only coercion.

The majority of the girls are coming from orphanages and started sex work because of poverty, lack of prospects, unemployment, racism against Roma and lack of education or a good example.

How have you been able to cope emotionally with all the impact that your work has had on you?
Being able not to engage emotionally and be there as a professional is an important pillar of my profession. Of course, there have been times when I have taken a story with me for a short period of time. As a professional I am there to help make the difficulties more bearable. Supervision and faith in God help me to get through a difficult case.

Image

Giving a presentation to prostitutes in Berlin - Photo: Éva Ádám

You often mention faith as a source of strength in your life. What does that mean to you?
As the Word says, God is my fortress, my rock. An important resting place for me is prayer, silence. It gives me peace of mind to know that I have a Creator who has my best interests at heart, who cares for me. I often don't understand why things happen, what God's purpose is in my life with them, but faith in His promise that He will ultimately work everything for my good helps me to carry the burden of everyday life. Without Him, it would be much harder for me to cope with everything. He is like an oasis for me, an oasis where I can draw strength from whenever I need to, and where I can rest. It also means taking my hands off the things I have no control over and giving them to God.

You have been living in Germany for almost seven years. For more than two years, you have been working as the educational director of Amaro Drom, one of the largest German Roma organisations, to educate the younger generation about Roma culture and history, and to reduce prejudice in society towards minority communities. How do you now relate to your roots?
I am proud of being Hungarian and of my Roma origin. My Hungarian mother tongue and my culture are very important.

After all this time living abroad, I really understand what home is.

I love Tata very much and I often feel homesick. I have many dreams: I would like to continue my studies and become an addictologist, and I want to use my knowledge and experience for the benefit of Hungary and the Roma community back home. I believe I can give hope to many Roma young people like me by telling my story and encouraging them to dare to dream.

Image

Éva and her son - Photo: Éva Ádám

Who are the people who keep you going, away from home, in the challenges of life in a foreign country?
Besides my faith in God, I have my mother and my two and a half year old son, Nanu. It is touching for me to experience that God cares for me here, even though I have had many difficulties. Dr. Attila Kálmán lives only in my memories and in my heart, but I know a Hungarian lady here in Berlin who is very much like him, Dr. Marianna Katona S.. They are close in age, too. She is also an exemplary person of the old times, I have a very close relationship with her, I owe a lot to her. Soli Deo Gloria, truly to God alone be the glory for all things!

This article was written by the author as a master's thesis for the communication training course "Journalism in the 21st Century" at the Faludi Ferenc Jesuit Academy. 
 

Cold training sessions, heated successes

He would be ninety-four were he still among us, but similarly to his speed on the track field, he reached his death earlier than others. Sándor Iharos became a world-class athlete even though he only started running seriously at the age of 20 - as his legendary coach Mihály Iglói put it, he was just a jogger before that. Under Iglói's tutelage, Iharos, along with István Rózsavölgyi and László Tábori, became a top-class athlete.

All three of them endured the hardship: the four to five hours of running each day that the Finland-trained coach demanded of his students without compromise. For him, there was only hard training, and many of the runners were injured by the pace he demanded, but those who didn't were the best. Iharos recalled: 'We were lucky. All three of us had loose, fibrous muscles and excellent joints that could withstand the agony of years of tremendous amounts of monotonous work."

The agony is well illustrated by a story written by András Kő in Magyar Nemzet magazine: "István Rózsavölgyi remembers running on Margaret island in the winter of 1955. But it was so cold that their breath froze on their faces. They literally refused to do any work that day. But Coach Iglói sat down on a snowbank and declared that he would not get up until Iharos and the others had finished their daily rations. They grabbed him, took him into one of the buildings and started running."

Thanks to this hard work, in 1955 and '56 Sándor Iharos had the best results in the world in all distances from 1500 metres to 10,000 metres, a performance that no other athlete has ever come close to.

That is why he and the public experienced what happened before, during and after the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a tragic turn of events. Before the Games, even the Saturday Evening Post had predicted that Hungarian runners would be in the race for at least three or four gold medals, with Iharos a massive favourite in the 10,000 metres.

In the latter distance, on 15 July 1956, in the Népstadion, amidst the applause of 40,000 Hungarian fans, he set a world record: he beat Emil Zátopek's record by 12 (!) seconds. Even his defeated Czech rival congratulated him: "I have a feeling that Iharos will compete at 10,000 metres in Melbourne and the record of that distance will only stand until then," he said. And the Magyarország (Hungary) newspaper later wrote: "For the first time since the miracle runner Nurmi, there was once again an athlete on the globe who could call himself the holder of the 1500, 5000 and 10,000 metres world records at the same time".

Revolution and love swept everything away

Time magazine published a piece entitled Five Comrades about the fearsome Hungarian running team coached by Iglói as the world's best 1500m relay team. Iharos, who raced for Honvéd (Sports Club of the Military Forces), was portrayed as a thin, bony-faced Hungarian lieutenant who was not a member of the Communist Party and who, according to him, "had everything he knew about Marxism drummed into him at school". The article notes that "we can say goodbye to communist heroes" and describes Iharos as "In sport-happy Hungary, the atmosphere heats up when he shakes off his sweats and goes for a run."

However, after all these great expectations, the Hungarian revolution broke out in the autumn of 1956, ending Iharos's rising hopes – although we will never know the exact causes and events. One thing is certain: he had previously been suffering from an injury, but everyone was sure he would make it to the Olympics, he was nominated to the Olympic team. The Games were held in late November or early December that year, in line with the weather in the southern hemisphere, but Iharos did not attend the training camp in Tata in October, as his team-mate István Rózsavölgyi recalled in an interview with Napi Magyarország magazine in 1998.

"We came up to Pest for him on 23 October, and that's how we got caught up in the revolution.

So, we saw the Stalin monument fall, but we didn't find Iharos.

We couldn't go back to the training camp in Tata, so we took shelter on the Honvéd sportsfield at Tüzér street. I tried to train, but without much success, because I was shot at from outside. When did I see Iharos again? We went to Prague by bus at the end of October, and once, probably in a car carrying our equipment, Sanyi (Sándor) arrived. I didn't attend the meeting where he announced that he didn't want to compete in the Olympics, but would only travel to Melbourne as a correspondent. He was not allowed to do so, so he did not board the plane with us."

In another interview with National Sport in 1998, Rózsavölgyi also shared why they had to search high and low for Iharos: "He fell in love, disappeared for weeks, didn't even train (...) On the one hand, he wanted to qualify for the Melbourne Olympics at all costs, but at the same time he was scared because he didn't train, he missed out on a lot of training sessions. He obviously didn't want to get embarrassed." He said this of Iharos’s personality: "Exceptional talent, sensational qualities, combined with a peculiar and sometimes completely incomprehensible nature. He was loved by many, his greatness was acknowledged, but he had no real friends."

"It could have been our successful Olympics Games in 1956, but the revolution disrupted our preparations both mentally and physically" - István Rózsavölgyi also said this to Új Magyarország magazine in 1997. The best result in Melbourne was achieved by László Tábori, who finished fourth in the 1500 metres. 

On 31 October 1956, Sándor Iharos himself justified his resignation from the Olympics in the then Népszava newspaper, thus: "I will not participate in the Olympics because I feel that I am out of shape. Since I cannot in good conscience promise to perform as expected, I have decided to cancel the trip. The huge amount of dollars that would have been spent on sending me abroad should be rather spent on medicine, and saving the lives of my countrymen wounded in the struggle for freedom."

Later, however, he followed the others to Prague, and asked the delegation's revolutionary committee to allow him to accompany the delegation to Melbourne as a sports journalist. The committee insisted that he should run, but he refused. He reportedly lost a lot of weight, and the final word was given by Coach Iglói, who, according to National Sport, sent him home.

And how did love come into the picture as a possible motive? According to many, Iharos would have been willing to compete in the Olympics only if his love, the javelin thrower Ilona Laczó, could also go. The two were married in 1957, and she told a journalist of Napi Magyarország in 1998: "It is not true that at the training camp in Prague Sanyi said he would only go to the Olympics if they took me. He couldn't have demanded such a thing, because although I had won the Hungarian and English championships in javelin throwing, I was not among the top international athletes in 1956. But it is undeniable that he came home from Prague because of me, and we left the country together after the revolution."

He was sensitive and quietly gave up

Iharos accepted a contract from a Belgian club, among several offers from abroad, and married Ilona Laczó in Belgium, who recalled the period: "We got everything we needed there, an apartment, a car and a proper job, and we both started learning French.

Despite the excellent opportunities, Sanyi became increasingly tense and homesick.

So in the spring of 1957 he decided to come home. The Belgians, of course, did not understand, articles appeared saying that the Red Runner was going back behind the Iron Curtain. But nothing prevented Sanyi from returning to his homeland. Believe me, if we had stayed in Belgium, his sporting career and his life would have been completely different."
Iharos said in an interview in May 1957: "I can only say what all returnees say: we regret leaving the country. We both missed home, our relatives, the whole country more and more." Back in Hungary, the couple, along with their regrets, were welcomed with open arms. 

After returning home, the sportsman started training again, but without the training of Mihály Igló, who had emigrated to the USA, he could not even come close to his former self: he competed in the 1960 Rome Olympics, but did not even come close to the podium. In 1963 he became the athletics coach of the Central Sports School (KSI), then in 1966 he divorced his wife and later worked as a petrol station attendant and grocer. He turned to drink to escape his deepening depression and died of heart failure at the age of 66. According to his son, Sándor Iharos Jr. 

"He quietly gave up. (...) He didn't want to fight any more."

Ilona Laczó remembered her former partner: "After we got divorced, we kept in touch (...) He was extremely sensitive and he couldn't seem to bear the fact that, despite running a dozen world records, he couldn't achieve on competitions what he was capable of. And in his life outside the track, he was simply a failure. And believe me, he was a man of great integrity and warmth. I can honestly say –not as an ex-wife, but as a former athlete –, that there has never been, and never will be, another Hungarian runner as outstanding as Sándor Iharos. Therefore he deserves all respect."

For his 1955 performance, Sándor Iharos earned the World Trophy, founded by the Helms Foundation in 1936, which he was awarded as the best in Europe. According to many Hungarian sources, the AP news agency also voted him the best in the world, but this was in fact done by a Swedish newspaper, Ny Tid: at the newspaper's request, nearly fifty journalists from different continents voted, and Iharos came out on top. In Hungary, the name of this outstanding runner is commemorated by a stamp, a memorial race and the Honvéd athletics stadium in Budapest.

Resources used:
https://pestisracok.hu/otvenhatban-tort-ossze-a-futozseni-iharos-sandor-alma-egy-legendas-rejtely-avagy-ikarosz-zuhanasa/
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iharos_S%C3%A1ndor
https://www.magyarhirlap.hu/sport/20200317-a-futokiralyt-nem-koronazhattak-meg-melbourne-ben
https://168.hu/sport/iharos-kiraly-korona-nelkul-felejthetetlen-sportolok-elfelejtett-tortenetek-188284
https://magyaredzo.hu/viharos-eletmu-kilencven-eve-szuletett-a-futozseni-iharos-sandor/