“Can’t you be prepared”: Mathias Sercu about cancer of son Tor (24)

Actor Mathias Sercu made people forget about their illness for a while on this Day Against Cancer. Almost everyone here has to deal with it. In the AZ Damiaan in Ostend alone, almost 1,000 people are diagnosed each year. More than 40,000 in Flanders.

“It is the first day that I experience this myself,” says Lieve Mylle, patient at the AZ Damiaan. “March 31, the diagnosis came for me. In May I already started with chemo for 5 months. In the meantime, I also had surgery. And now the radiation.”

“You are not alone”

Often the diagnosis of cancer is a huge blow. The beginning of a long agony. Kom Op Tegen Kanker offers a lot of support. Oostduinkerkenaar Marc Michils has been director for 10 years. “That’s the message we want to send to all people. You are not alone.”

There are many volunteers, the professionals in the hospitals, but Kom op tegen Kanker mainly supports cancer research and there is good news.

“Also in prevention, human guidance, but also in cancer research. And yes, that pays off. Research means progress. There is perspective. We can be optimists. Kom Op Tegen Kanker will continue until the day that everyone survives cancer.”

“Can’t Be Prepared”

Those who get cancer today have a much greater chance of overcoming the disease than 10 and 20 years ago. Actor & musician Mathias Sercu from Ardooie also knows better than anyone what the disease does to someone. His son Tore, barely 24 years old, is battling the disease.

“Which was a terrible bomb and that my own son was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago. And you cannot be prepared for that. The research, that is phenomenal what those doctors can and do. My son had been there for a long time I wouldn’t have been there if they weren’t there so quickly in the beginning,” says Mathias Sercu.

Thanks to the research, death rates in men with cancer fall by 2.9 percent each year and by 1.8 percent in women. At Kom Op Tegen Kanker they believe that there will even come a day when we will conquer and beat cancer.

Single ‘What a beautiful day’ for charity

On the Day Against Cancer Mathias Sercu will release the single ‘What a beautiful day’. He does this with his group Mathias Sercu & De Opportuniteiten, where his brother Sam also plays. Sam was also diagnosed with cancer years ago.

The proceeds of ‘What a beautiful day’ will go to the project ‘Kunst Aan Bed’ of doctor Tessa Kerre of the UZ in Ghent.