Despite the cold, Freya is looking forward to it. “I put on a thick coat and gloves,” she says, laughing. Freya has the rare and incurable muscle disease RYR1 myopathy, which means she has needed a lot of help from an early age.
“I can’t run or jump, I can’t get up on my own and I can’t cycle on a regular bicycle. That’s why I use this hand bike. At night I sleep with a ventilator,” she says.
Yet she doesn’t let that stop her. Her father, Roderik Schaepman, is very proud. “The reason is of course sad, Freya’s muscle disease, but it is nice to turn that into something positive like this,” he says.
Brother and nieces are also taking action
Together with her brother and nieces, Freya travels the route south. They also roll with her in an electric wheelchair. “I really enjoy it, but it is especially important to do this for my sister,” says her brother Jonas.
Niece Lotte hopes that the action will make people think: “I hope that people see that Freya is just like us and do not reject her because of her muscular disease or wheelchair.” Freya herself shares that feeling. She has one clear message to passers-by: “When people see me in my wheelchair, I hope they don’t look too long. I’m just a human being, just like you.”
With her campaign, Freya raises money for the Spieren voor Spieren foundation. The foundation helps families dealing with muscular diseases, for example with the purchase of aids. She also hopes to fulfill her great wish with her campaign: a wheelchair bus for the family. For Freya, the journey is exciting, but above all important: she wants to show that, despite limitations, you can still get moving for a good cause.
If you also want to donate something for Freya’s trip, that is possible via this link. She has already raised more than 30,000 euros, the target amount is 40,000 euros.