In actie voor Hartstichting

On the 19th of March, I will be running a marathon in Barcelona. Despite that running is not my preferred kind of sport, I’ve always said I would run one marathon. After my decision , I thought about how I could make it useful.

At the start of this year, my little brother, Paultje, passed away at the exact age of 22 years and 6 months. Paultje was born with a ventricular septal defect. This is a birth defect of the heart, in which there is a hole in the wall (septum) that separates the two lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart. It was said that Paultje could have lived a long an normal life with this condition so long as he didn’t overload his heart through, for example, sports. However, on the 24th of January it became fatal and Paultje didn’t wake up from his sleep.

Paultje is the most joyful person I know, every single moment with him is a day that I enjoy to the fullest. Paultje realized that we shouldn’t take life too seriously and loved every moment of it, which makes it even harder to believe that it was taken from him. To be blessed with a brother is a gift in itself, but to be able to call such a brother a best friend, is one in a million.

It is therefore that I will be running this marathon to raise money for Hartstichting. Hartstichting is an organization that helps find solutions to keep hearts healthy. This is achieved by providing rapid assistance when every minute counts, detecting heart problems earlier and treating them more effectively.

In this way, Hartstichting tries to prevent people from becoming heart patients or unnecessarily suffering or dying from a heart disease. After speaking to Hartstichting, it was clear that there is still a research deficit in this area. Despite all the medical and technological progresses, many heart diseases lay dormant and undiagnosed.

Raising this money won’t solve the entire problem, but it could help prevent future fatalities and give people with these conditions hope, which provides me with great comfort.

Any donation helps and will be very much appreciated. Let’s help this great organization to achieve their dream!