“My tactic for the race is to cycle as moderately as possible, so don’t completely ride a lot and just watch it a day,” he says. At difficult moments he expects to have a lot of support for his wife Liek, who follows her husband closely from home.
Liek now knows exactly how she can give him that little push to pick up the thread again. “Then he calls me and he taught me that I should ask him a number of questions, such as: When did you last eaten? When did you last sleep for the last time? Because sometimes he is so bad in his own bubble and he no longer has that sharp.”
Collect money for charity
His wife also inspired him in the choice of charity for which he is going to cycle: the Cancer Care Center. Six years ago, the life of the couple was turned upside down when Liek got cervical cancer. “Then I drastically changed my life by, for example, eating a lot healthier and walking a lot.”
She received the feedback from the doctors that that healthy lifestyle contributed positively to her recovery. The Cancer Care Center has a program that helps cancer patients to become vital again.
Liek has since been declared healed. The healthy lifestyle has remained. “I think we have inspired each other enormously,” she says. “He was first inspired by me how I passed through that process and he enormously inspires me how he goes through such a process like the Via Race.”