The 10-year-old Kian Sijp from Emmen would make and sell 10,000 knee-ranges for the University Medical Center Groningen, but he went well over it. He presented a check to the hospital today, after he made 21,000 knee peasants.
“It was a huge surprise,” says pediatrician Patrick van Rheenen about the check for 8,115 euros. “Of course it does not happen every day that children who come to the hospital for treatment come with such an amount.”
Kian has already had 49 operations. He has no intestines, through an infusion he gets all the nutrients directly into his blood. The boy has been in the hospital for about 4.5 years, sometimes months in a row.
He wanted to mean something for the hospital and therefore started baking and selling knee pagination. The money that he raised is intended for the Beatrix Children’s Hospital, part of the UMCG. Kian didn’t do it alone; Oma Greta, his parents and other family helped.
Grandma did it with love, although it was quite a job. “It is not only the kneepertions, but it is also the batter, cleaning, packing. Ensure that everything goes well. There is a lot involved,” she says.
The knee-ranges were mainly sold to acquaintances, such as people from the fire brigade, from Kians football club, his schoolmates, family, fellow flat residents and others from the neighborhood.
What should happen to the money? “It’s not up to us, and Kian must probably have ideas about it himself,” says Van Rheenen. The doctor is right about that. The boy would like the hospital to use the money to make the children’s department more fun, by asking when a child leaves what the person missed. Kian himself already gives an example: “Toys that other children are happy with.”