On the first of November 2015 I ran the New York City Marathon to raise funds for KiKa, a Dutch foundation dedicated to childhood cancer research. As I have seen what childhood cancer can do to you, the choice to run for this charity was obvious.
In 2015 I was able to raise the enormous amount of € 8.710,80 for Run for KiKa Marathon! Together with all other 150+ Marathon runners we raised almost 1.3 Million Euros for research into Chilhood Cancer!
If you prefer to read this story in Dutch, please visit the Homepage.
The Kaas Voor KiKa initiative
Childhood cancer has a huge impact. All children with cancer face a huge struggle which is often so severe that it has a large influence on the rest of their life. No child should have to face this. Unfortunately I have seen it twice, how hard it can be, both in my close vicinity. A family member and a very good friend of mine both fought off cancer between the ages of 16-19 years old. They are now doing fine, but their battle against cancer will always be in their memory.
Currently 1 out of every 4 children with cancer die. KiKa wants to reduce this to 1 in 20 by 2025, a great ambition which I love to support. KiKa is the main sponsor for research into childhood cancer in the Netherlands and really makes a difference. Over the past years the chance of survival has risen dramatically, but still too much of the 500 children who are diagnosed with cancer each year do not survive.
Over the next ten years researchers hope to develop new and better medicines, which are more effective and have less collateral damage. But as most of you know, researchers are expensive and therefore KiKa raises funds.
KiKa's goal
The foundation KiKa has as goal: raising funds for innovative research and other activities in the field of childhood cancer aimed at reducing pain and struggle, better healing prospects and a higher quality of life at older ages. Additionally KiKa focuses on providing information.
More specifically KiKa aims to:
- Increase of the chance of recovery.
- Improve the quality of the treatment (less aggressive if possible).
- Reduce side effects after treatment (effects later in life).
At the moment, about 25% of the children diagnosed with cancer do not survive.
KiKa’s goal is to reduce that to 5% in 2025.
In order to achieve this goal, heavy investment in pediatric research is needed.
Thanks to everyone to help me reach my goal
Take a look at who sponsored: Sponsors 2015
If you want to know more about my initiave for Run for KiKa, my motivation, KiKa's goals or my sponsor activities, you can find an extensive explanation (in Dutch) via my Homepage. Thank you for reading and please feel free to contact me if you have questions, suggestions, great ideas or for anything else.