As motorcyclists, Jan de Blaaij and Hans Delwel not only share the same hobby, but unfortunately also the same suffering. Both men have lymphatic cancer and are terminally ill. Out of gratitude for the good care of the staff of the Breda Amphia hospital, they are starting a crowdfunding campaign. They take a two-month motorcycle trip through America.
Jan from Breda and Hans from Steenbergen both have a Harley-Davidson. During corona times they participated in a long motorcycle ride. During the break, Hans shared his thermos of tomato soup with Jan and the two have been friends ever since.
Not much later, Hans was told that he had lymphatic cancer. “Jan constantly came to the hospital to cheer up and bring something fun,” says Hans BredaNu. “A year later he became ill. He got almost the same variant.”
Neither of the men will get better, but they feel that they have been helped very well by the hospital staff. That’s why they wanted to give something back. A bunch of flowers? “No, something needs to be done that will benefit more people and preferably that someone can be cured one day,” says Hans.
The variant that Jan and Hans have is quite rare and therefore little research is done into it. The two want to change that with part of the proceeds from the crowdfunding campaign.
They want to spend the other part of the proceeds on the Amphia. “If you are admitted here and are recovering, you have to get out of bed, because they want you out of the hospital as quickly as possible. But the department is not really challenging to get out of bed, so we want to do something about that,” says Jan.
They want to renovate the corridors and make it a bit more cozy with murals. Hans himself also missed a meeting point where you can sit together. “In the end it turned out that Amphia itself also needed this.”
Jan and Hans presented their campaign to the Friends of Amphia Foundation, which is committed to the hospital. For example, the free shuttle buses from the parking garage run thanks to the foundation. “Jan and Hans immediately started working on donations. That is very special, so we really appreciate that,” says chairman Raymond Kouwenberg.
The men leave for America on April 29. The name of their action is ‘Fight cancer & Never give up‘. They hope to raise 12,000 euros with this. “We will really keep fighting until the last day and we want to make sure that in the end no one has to give up.”
