Harry Verbunt (61) from Den Bosch is diagnosed with esophageal cancer with metastases three years ago. Because he is incurably ill, he registers for an investigation with experimental treatment. Now he is the only one of the nineteen participants to participate.
For the conversation about his illness, Harry would like to meet at the edge of the Loonse and Drunense Duinen near Udenhout. “My grandfather was in the resistance and was murdered by the Germans here on 26 May 1944. In the woods there is a monument with his name on it.
His name was Harry Verbunt, “Harry begins his story.” When I was on my way to a commemoration on 26 May 2021, I told my wife: “If I die later – and that can take 40 or 50 years – Then I would like to be scattered here ‘. A day later I was told that I had esophageal cancer. It felt like a death sentence. “
Harry had been suffering from swallowing problems in 2021, especially when eating. “The stomach-liver gut doctor immediately saw during the examination that there was a tumor of six centimeters in my esophagus,” says Harry. “If you get the diagnosis, you can’t do much yourself, apart from adjusting your lifestyle. And I have done that too. I have stopped alcohol, which has been shown to cause (esophagus) cancer. Furthermore I already lived healthy: I ate a lot of fruit and vegetables and limited my meat consumption in the first instance.
According to the doctors, treatment was no longer possible and Harry probably only had to live for a year. But through a second opinion in Amsterdam, he came into contact with a clinical study for an experimental treatment method. “I was allowed to start in 2022 and the treatment caught on so well that after three courses there were no tumors to be seen on the scans.”
Most important 5 facts about esophageal cancer
- Every day 8 people are told that they have esophageal cancer
- Every day 6 people die from the disease
- Esophageal cancer is most common in the Netherlands of all European countries
- Men run 3 times as much risk of getting esophageal cancer
- Alcohol, smoking and overweight increase the risk of esophageal cancer considerably
Source: MDL Fund.
Together with Harry, nineteen people started the clinical studies at the time and he is now the last to participate. Why the others have dropped out, he does not know for privacy reasons. “It feels special and double. I have the feeling that I am in reserve time, an extra extension of my life.”
And that life goes very well, after surgery on his stomach and esophagus. “I can just eat again, my condition is up to standard, I can cycle and I really have quality of life. The most important thing is that no tumors can be seen with every CT scan. We are very happy with that every time every time we are very happy with that . “
As long as it goes well, Harry wants to come back every year where his grandfather was shot together with thirteen other resistance fighters – and where he eventually wants to be scattered himself. “It always stays with me. And I can now laugh that one day I came here very healthy and the next day my death sentence was told. That laugh is of course because I am still doing well now,” says Harry.
