Margriet van Loon from Waalwijk got the shock of her life when she was told that she had metastatic renal cell cancer. She was expected to live only another year. That was eleven years ago now. “I am lucky that I can be the exception and that I am still alive. I enjoy that every day.”
With a smile on her face, Margriet looks back on her special story. When she was 57 years old, disaster struck. “When I came back from the gym I got a huge stomach ache. I went to the doctor, who initially thought it was kidney stones. But it turned out to be renal cell cancer, with metastases.”
The expectations were not good. “I was told I only had three months to a year to live. With luck, a year and a half.”
“I don’t feel like the sword of Damocles is hanging over my head.”
An uncertain time followed. Margriet could not get better, but the doctors were still able to operate on her in the hope of prolonging her life. “Five years after such an operation, on average only ten percent of patients are still alive. But it has now been ten years and I am still here. Someone has to be the exception.”
However, Margriet has suffered considerably in terms of her health. She is in a wheelchair and is tube fed. But she remains positive. “I don’t feel like the sword of Damocles is hanging over my head. I seize the day. I enjoy good days to the full and bad days I suffer.”
“If you have such a diagnosis, you don’t have to lie in your bed until death comes.”
Margriet is a special lady with a special story. And this was also noticed by Tilburg documentary makers Lieke Potters and Marieke Hanegraaf. They made the documentary ‘Doodgelukkig’ about palliative care and saw Margriet as one of the main characters.
“We once had a conversation about how we were quite afraid of death, because it is so unpredictable,” Lieke explains. “Then we wondered whether you are also so afraid of it, when you know it is coming.”
That gave rise to the idea for the documentary. Margriet was linked to them by the Palliative Care Foundation as an expert by experience. “But we had such a good connection and were so impressed by her positivity that we asked her to become one of the main characters in our story,” Marieke adds.
Although Margriet hesitated for a moment, she decided to cooperate. “Because I really want people to know that even if you have such a diagnosis, you do not have to lie in your bed until death comes. It is better to do fun things and enjoy what you can do.”
“Life is so beautiful, it’s a shame you only see that when you’re sick.”
And that is what Margriet does. “I love driving around on my mobility scooter, I paint, do volunteer work and love my cat. I’m still here and having a party.” She doesn’t want to hear anything about the term ‘spare time’. “I think that’s such nonsense! It’s just my time.”
Despite everything, Margriet got many beautiful things out of her illness. “I learned a lot from it. Life is so beautiful. It’s a shame that you only see that when you are sick.”
Waiting for privacy settings…