She ran marathons. But now Mijntje Perk is in bed. For 4 years now, 24 hours a day. She has chronic Lyme. In the United States, she can be treated for it. Costs: 25,000 euros. This is not reimbursed in the Netherlands.
To collect that money, her cousin Wil Paping from Roden went for a walk. On Friday he completed the Pieterpad of about 500 kilometers in ten days. He hopes to raise as much money as possible through crowdfunding. The counter is currently at just under 18,000 euros.
The second day he ran the same distance again. “That was too long. It was hot and I had also eaten and drunk too little.” When he arrived at the campsite, he first sat down on a bench. “When I got up again I said to the campsite owner: I think I’m going to pass out. I think I was gone for a minute. The campsite owner patched me up again with a few cans of coke and a Snicker.”
It was a tough journey according to the long-distance runner. “My feet have had to endure quite a bit. I especially suffered from blisters. What disappointed me most was that I had no time for anything: getting up, eating, breaking down the tent, walking, setting up the tent, sleeping, so not sitting quietly somewhere I had taken my museum card with me on the road, but I might as well have left it at home. I didn’t have the time or energy for that.”
RTV Noord walked along a bit at the start of Paping’s adventure: (text continues below video)