Wouter Klunder (19) from Hoogeveen lost his father to Suicide last year and therefore ran the Utrecht marathon to raise money for the Mind Foundation. “I might still help people who are in the same situation.”
It was only a year since Wouter got the app that turn his life upside down. “My father wrote with my sisters in the group app that we had to come home and that we had to call the police. It was done with him, he said.” Wouter remembers that he was staring at his phone with an open mouth. From afterwards everything is one big haze.
His father is taken to the hospital by the emergency services and dies a few days later. His family are left with a friends in shock. “We knew that sometimes it was a bit less, but we didn’t know it was so bad. And that he was able to do something like that at all.”
To give the intense grief a place, Wouter starts running. He soon discovers that the kilometers are healing. That is why he decides to train for a marathon and to link a good cause to it. “I first thought of 113 suicide prevention, but I wanted to tackle the problem at the head. That is why I chose the Mind Foundation, for people with mental problems. My father would have barely had anything from it. If he had had more or better help, we might have prevented this.”
For half a year he trains hard for the marathon in Utrecht, which he ran on May 18. With a photo album in his hands, Wouter looks back on the event. “I was nervous, but I also had faith. I had trained well.” The photo album contains photos of Wouter and of his family and friends with large banners. “Everyone does something,” says it. “That’s my motto,” he explains. “Everyone does something, but everyone really does their best. So it is better to make something beautiful out of it. I have noticed that life can be very short and that it can be that way.”
The marathon is a true exhaustion stroke and yet the Wouter is not disappointing. “I think the reason why I did this through it helped me,” he says. “I was mainly focused on running, but I also kept Dad in the back of my mind when it became a bit more difficult. Then I thought: it is hard now, but what Dad had in his head was much heavier.” After 5 hours and 12 seconds, Wouter crosses the finish line. “My watch said I had walked under 5 hours.” He laughs. “But I am very satisfied. The Marathon completion was my goal.”
Now, a few weeks later, he is still not completely recovered. “I’m tired and my feet hurt.” He all had it for it. “I am very proud that I made it. And I am sure my father would have been proud of. That is a nice thought, even though I would have preferred that he had been there.”
In total, Wouter raises 5300 euros for the Mind Foundation. “I no longer have my father, but maybe other people can still be helped with this.”