She had an overflowing love for flowers. A passion which she had turned into her profession, without thinking for a single moment that this profession of florist would end up poisoning and killing her beloved daughter. It has been two and a half years since Laure Marivain, her husband and their two other children mourned the death of their little Emmy, struck down by acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “She only asked to live but at only 11 years old, she spread her most beautiful wings on March 11, 2022 at 6:02 p.m. to fly towards a world without pain,” testifies her mother.
Because for seven years, the lively little girl “carried the burden of illness on her back” and experienced “torture”. Laure Marivain’s pregnancy and childbirth had certainly been difficult, but without this causing undue concern to the medical profession. Around the age of 4, the girl’s health seriously deteriorated with worrying signs of fatigue and bone pain. The medical verdict will finally fall on January 16, 2015 with blood cancer diagnosed in the child. “Emmy immediately understood the gravity and said her words: Don’t be afraid, I’m going to fight,” says her mother.
A daily life full of pain and care for the little girl
Plunged “into hell and turmoil”, the Marivain family, based in the Nantes region, then questioned the doctors to try to understand the origin of the illness which was gnawing at their daughter. “It’s bad luck or foul,” the specialists will awkwardly answer them. Years of suffering then followed for the young Emmy who “underwent thousands of medical procedures of all kinds”. The one who loved dancing and horseback riding sees her daily life punctuated by blood samples, chemotherapy sessions, punctures and surgeries.
A heavy course of care which leaves little respite for the little girl’s frail body and weighs on her morale. “She was changing physically to her great despair,” confides her mother. It grew, swollen by corticosteroids, then became skeletal and had to be fed through a nasogastric tube. She also lost her hair very often, it was so horrible for her that I had to keep it because she wanted not to forget its beauty.”
Flowers impregnated with pesticide residue
As her daughter’s health worsens, Laure Marivain begins to conduct her own investigation, suspecting that her job as a florist may have had something to do with it. Stunned, she then discovered the hidden side of the horticultural world with flowers from Kenya or Ecuador impregnated with pesticide residues. A study published in 2019 will detect more than a hundred, most of which are banned in the European Union, in the best-selling flower bouquets. “We touched them and handled them all day long without any protection because nothing was visible on the hands,” assures the former florist. When in fact, we were slowly being poisoned without us knowing anything about it.”
In her fight, Laure Marivain receives support from the Phyto-Victimes association who advised him to contact the Pesticide Victims Compensation Fund. She will do it a few days after Emmy’s sudden death. “I made her a promise to fight for her and to let the world know what was done to her,” she assures. Because it is not normal that we let our children die of cancer or other diseases because of pesticides.”
Consumed by the guilt of having “poisoned her daughter”
In 2023, the FIVP recognized “the causal link between Emmy’s pathology and her exposure to pesticides during the prenatal period”, a first for a deceased child. We then offer a lump sum of 25,000 euros each to both parents for the damage suffered. Compensation that the couple contested this Wednesday afternoon before the 9th chamber of the social division of the Rennes Court of Appeal. “This would therefore mean that Emmy as well as all the other members of the family have not suffered any harm, it is unbearable and intolerable,” pleaded Maître François Lafforgue, the family’s lawyer, demanding “full reparation” .
Consumed by the guilt of having “poisoned her daughter” during her pregnancy, Laure Marivain also defended Emmy’s honor in a moving letter read during the hearing. “We deprived her of her life and reduced her to silence, we cannot also deprive her of her rights,” she let out tears in her voice, denouncing “a real health scandal”.
The lawyer for the pesticide victims’ compensation fund, for her part, assured that this fund “could only intervene within the limits of these powers” and could therefore not “fully repair the damage”. The decision was deliberated on December 4.