Female national footballer dies after brief illness

Vincentians will next week bid farewell to a national sportswoman who was preparing to represent this country overseas but never got a chance to realize her aspirations.{{more}}

Matika Ferdinand-Mason, a 22-year-old resident of Richmond Hill, was part of the national team of 20 chosen to travel to Guyana on March 2 to take part in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) zone of the World Cup Qualifiers.

Matika, the mother of a one-year old daughter, passed away last Saturday morning after a brief illness.

Coach of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines female football team, Kendale Mercury, remembers Matika as a player who had that extra spark.

“She wanted to succeed, she was well disciplined, and she had that fire that most coaches will look for in a player,” Mercury recalled.

“My overall impression of her as a footballer was that she would give you what the coaching staff asks,” Mercury said passionately of Ferdinand-Mason, who played in the central midfield position.

Mercury said that Ferdinand-Mason attended the doctor last week Wednesday after complaining of back pain and was given six days sick leave, after being diagnosed with minor back strain.

However, a post mortem report performed this week said that Ferdinand-Mason died from an obstruction of a blood vessel in the lungs, caused by a blood clot which travelled to the lungs from a vein in her right leg.

A member of the Digicel Je Belle female football team, Ferdinand was not only a footballer. She played Center and Wing Attack for C & R Enterprises Sion Hill in the National Club Netball Tournament and was also a member of the NLA Sydney Strikers, a team which participates in the Sion Hill competition.

Ferdinand-Mason was assigned to the Department of Sports as part of the Youth Empowerment Service Programme and worked with a few primary schools in Kingstown, including the C.W. Prescod Primary School.

The fourth of five children, Maitka is survived by two sisters, two brothers, her mother Leone Mason, as well as her daughter Timoria.

She will be laid to rest on Monday, March 1, at the Kingstown Cemetery, following a funeral service at the New Testament Church of God at Wilson Hill. (RT)