“I want to make it as comfortable as possible for everyone who is ill,” says 27-year-old Jordy Onkenhout from Hoofddorp. He recently opened his third comfort room in the Spaarne Gasthuis. The extra comfortable hospital rooms are intended for seriously ill and exhausted patients. “I know my mom really liked that room,” says Cynthia Deuss.
Wil van Welderen – Cynthia’s mother – is 56 years old when her doctors come with terrible news. Pancreatic cancer has been discovered and there are metastases all over her body.
“Worst Thing I’ve Ever Experienced”
In mid-September Cynthia’s mother receives the terrible news: pancreatic cancer has been discovered and there are metastases throughout her body. The doctors give her a maximum of six months, but she dies two weeks later.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve experienced in my life,” says Cynthia more than a year and a half later. Although it was a heartbreaking period for her and her brothers, the space where the farewell was held made it a little more bearable.
It was one of the comfort rooms that Jordy Onkenhout from Hoofddorp via its foundation paid. “It was very nice to have a space that gave us a living room feeling. I know that my mother also really liked the fact that we as a family could always come by. That is different than if she were lying in a room. With such a space you also have a lot more privacy, which is also nice, especially if you have to say goodbye to each other there
Unfortunately, the hospital walls of the Spaarne Gasthuis are familiar territory for Jordy, in his young life he was cured of cancer no less than three times. After sixty chemotherapy, twenty radiation treatments and one stem cell transplant, he was declared clean, Jordy told an interview of NH News in 2017.
‘I’m going home again’
He himself ended up in a ‘normal’ hospital room during his illness. He thought it was horrific and immediately said upon entering: “I’m going home again”, to his parents. But that didn’t happen, an older man offered Jordy his ‘comfort room’. He didn’t hesitate for a moment and moved into a room with warm colors on the wall, a television and a nice chair to sit in.
“It’s just a bit more of a living room feeling, someone can sleep with you and you have much more privacy. For example, I had put my Playstation there myself and I was gaming with a bunch of friends,” says Jordy.
During the interview with NH News in 2017 he says he has only one goal: “To eradicate cancer from the world.” When he reads back his words this week, it becomes: “That’s not really possible, but I want to make it as comfortable as possible for everyone who is sick.”
JoJo Foundation
In the third and final phase of his illness, Jordy, together with his football coach, founded the JoJo Foundation. With the money he collected, he opened a total of three comfort rooms in the Spaarne Gasthuis. In addition, he also provided an extra sports room where people can ‘sweat out the chemo’. “At least that’s how it felt to me,” he recalls.
Cynthia has nothing but good things for her peer’s efforts: “I think it’s great what Jordy does. It’s so important for patients and family members. It’s great that he gives something back to the hospital and makes a little more comfort possible.”
The Spaarne Gasthuis also praises the sponsored comfort rooms. Carlijn van den Anker works in the palliative department, located on the floor where the oncology is located. It is a place where many people use the rooms.
“We are always very happy and satisfied with the rooms. They are more spacious than the average hospital room and people can receive their own visitors there in peace and do their own things,” says Carlijn. “In addition, I always find it very nice to have conversations with people in a room where there is literally a bit of space. You can simply have a nicer conversation there than in a smaller room,” she concludes.