1/1 Jordi (28) is less and less able to help his friends where they can due to MS
Jordi Nooijen (28) from Den Bosch has had MS for ten years, a chronic disease that means that he has to sacrifice more and more quality of life. His friends Eke, Max and Joey have known him for sixteen years. Since Jordi became ill, friends have been helping him from all sides. They help him out of bed, cook meals, do the shopping and clean up his house.
They got to know each other at a soccer practice. “We all ended up on the couch at Jordi’s home after training at TGG Den Bosch. We were immediately big buds, that has never changed,” says Joey.
In the summer of 2011, Jordi falls from a roof, four meters down and right on his head. He sustains a skull fracture and is in a coma for a while. He will bounce back in a year.
“Jordi sees the positive sides and always makes you smile.”
Until that one day, when he wakes up and can’t do anything with the left side of his body. It turns out to be MS multiple sclerosis. A chronic disease in which your immune system affects your nerves, making it increasingly difficult to control your entire body.
Jordi puts his shoulders to the wheel and starts a rehabilitation process again. He doesn’t get discouraged. Despite his illness, he remains positive. Joey calls it his greatest quality. “If you’re worried about something, you should be with him. He always sees the positive sides and always makes you laugh,” says Joey.
“He didn’t have an easy childhood, that’s why he wants to help young people.”
Jordi himself is an avid rapper, but the illness causes him to have speech problems. Rapping is no longer possible, a great loss for him.
He therefore starts a social platform: Bunker sessions. A studio in Den Bosch where young people make music and rap. A way to still be busy with his passion: helping young people to develop their talent. “Jordi has not had it easy in his youth. That is one reason he likes to help young people.”
“He doesn’t necessarily have to be able to walk, he wants his hands to do it again.”
But Jordi gets more and more outbursts, so that he suddenly can no longer speak. He is also unable to walk, he is in a wheelchair. For the Bunker sessions he does graphic design and edits videos, but the MS makes controlling his ‘good hand’ more and more difficult. “It is important for Jordi that he can continue to do that. He doesn’t necessarily have to be able to walk, he wants his hands to do it again.”
His friends grant him a better life, a new chance. He may get that chance with treatment in Russia. A so-called aHSCT treatment that resets its immune system using its own stem cells.
“Above all, Jordi wants to have done everything possible to reduce MS.”
The treatment is not yet done in the Netherlands and is not reimbursed by health insurers, partly because of the risks. “Either he can’t do anything because of the MS or he accepts this risk. Jordi wants to have done everything possible to reduce the MS.”
That’s why Eke, Max and Joey are raising money for treatment in Russia. With success, in two days they have already raised more than 10,000 euros of the required EUR 30,000. “We didn’t expect this,” says Joey. “We are full of teeth.”
Jordi is happy with the action his friends have now started for him. “But he is also very sad at the same time. You really don’t want this to be necessary.”
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