Cornald Maas from Bergen op Zoom has a “malignant form of chronic cancer”. The 62-year-old Songfestival presenter found out at the beginning of last summer after the Eurovision Song Contest with Joost Klein.
Maas then discovered a “weird bump” under his foot, he says to AD.
“After many studies it turned out to be a very rare form of malignant chronic cancer, which can only manifest itself in a few places: your hands, lower leg and foot,” says the presenter. “The sufficiently cut away under my foot and no metastases were found, but as soon as I get such a place again, I have to take action immediately.”
“Why wouldn’t it happen to me?”
Maas has always been afraid of death. Yet the diagnosis of ‘cancer’ came in less hard than he expected. “At that moment, to my own surprise I became very calm and I went to check out what had already gone well in my life. Well, that was quite a lot, I thought. And moreover I thought: why wouldn’t it happen to me? A observation that remarkably enough also gave me a lot of rest.”
On his own
Maas is a commentator at the Songfestival for the 18th time on Tuesday. This year he does that on his own. Co-presenter Jacqueline Govaert from Kaatsheuvel dropped out. Krezip’s singer says that it is difficult to combine the Songfestival with her other plans.
Nikkie de Jager from Uden also dropped out this year at the Songfestival. She was asked to hand out points on behalf of the Netherlands, but thanked for the honor. Chantal Janzen is going to do that.
