“I did it my way.” That is what it was all about for the terminally ill Ben van Nies on Sunday. The 66-year-old Terheijdenaar would cross the finish line of the Verbeeten Challenge in Tilburg at all costs. Anything to raise money for the disease that will cost him his life: cancer. “I do the last meters myself!”
At home on the couch in Terheijden, Ben prepared for a special day this morning. “This is the last thing I do. I do a part in the wheelchair, but I do the last meters myself,” he says firmly.
Despite all the sadness, the born Rotterdammer remains sober. “There’s not much we can do about it. We also joke about it in the family. Most recently, when it was about my cremation. That my son would read from Harry Potter during the goodbye,” he grins.
“At Christmas I was told: ‘You still have months, not years.’
In 2020, pancreatic cancer was discovered in Ben. In 2022, the family thought it would be possible to close this miserable chapter, except for the checks. But that was not to be. It turned out that there were all kinds of spots on his liver.
“At Christmas I was told, ‘You have months, not years,'” says Ben. “But I’ve been holding it for four months now.”
“We had a hard head that he would make it. But now he is here.”
In an ambulance from WensAmbulance Brabant, Ben went to Tilburg today with his wife Hetty and daughter Nicole. He visibly enjoyed all the attention he received from family and friends who traveled with him. “We had a hard time believing he would make it. But now he’s here,” says Nicole.
Walking five kilometers by yourself is no longer an option for Ben. “No, we are going to walk around with friends and family. But it is and remains a Van Nies, so my father preferred to do the route himself, partly in a wheelchair,” says Nicole. “Unfortunately it is much too cold for that. If he runs the last meters to the finish, it is more than enough.”
“I crossed the finish line myself. It was wonderful.”
And so it happened. Ben was given the honor of giving the starting shot himself with a pistol at the Olympiaplein in Tilburg. The beaming go-getter could count on a huge round of applause and a lot of high fives. When the group of fifteen men arrived at the finish after an hour, Ben joined them.
From his wheelchair, lifted by his wife and children, he walked the last meters to the finish line on his own. To the sounds of Frank Sinatra’s MyWay he accomplished his mission. “I did it: I crossed the finish line myself. It was wonderful.”
With the help of loved ones, Ben has such a Raised 1,500 euros for the Verbeeten Institute. This organization conducts research into cancer treatments.
