Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

------------------------

In the past 5 years, three very close people to me have been diagnosed with cancer and it breaks my heart to see them suffer from such a horrible disease. 

Although it looks like science has made big advances in treatments, I feel frustrated and powerless - standing at the sideline - unable to fight with my beloved ones.

So, I wondered how could I help from my position, from my small world? How can I go beyond “only” giving moral support and positivity? Therefore, I decided to start with a few small steps: 

I donated my hair so that it could be used to make wigs for children or women undergoing chemotherapy. Even though this does not help directly with the cure of cancer, it does provide the person with positivity and confidence to keep going, looking just as they did before the treatment. And although these are just a few centimetres of hair, every inch counts. So please consider this too!

The next thing I did, was to donate money to a cancer foundation. I researched several organisations working on the cure of cancer. But as I’ve learned, every cancer is so specific that each treatment must be tailored to that exact person. And depending on to which organisation I donate money to, it would only benefit the research of that specific type of cancer. 

I then came across the ‘European Association of Cancer Research’, the EACR, which is a registered charity encompassing a professional membership association and a global community for those working and studying cancer research. Their mission is “Advancing cancer research for the public benefit: from basic research to prevention, treatment and care”.

So I narrowed down the association I would like to donate to, to the EACR. But I would like to go a step further: I would like to motivate you all (my network) to also contribute to this. How? Well, I have decided to raise the money by running the Amsterdam Half Marathon this upcoming 15th of October. 

What do I expect from you? Nothing. My main goal with this post is to make you aware of the small things that can be done to help someone fighting  this terrible disease. Another is to let you know I'm here in case you need emotional support; I am of course not a specialist, but I can offer you an open ear and a (virtual) shoulder.

And, if you do want to contribute financially, even if it's just 1€, please do! Every cm of hair, every Euro helps. 

I have attached the link to my fundraising site where you can contribute, learn more about the association, or just follow my running process until the race.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this and to hopefully help!