Our perspective on the upcoming European In-Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR) All our Inspire2Live patient advocates are volunteers. I lost my dad when he was only 47 and other patient advocates are patients themselves. Through our proximity to the tragedy of cancer, we are driven by the hope, knowledge and fact that we can do better…Continue reading European In-Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR)
Cancer is a killer. Cancer invalidates people and destroys the lives of individuals and families. Just like wars, we will never have peace with cancer. Since Nixon declared the war on cancer in 1971, the notion that cancer is war has become anathema. One naturally hates cancer. Of course warfare is a metaphor. It is…Continue reading What cancer does
I have known the Tegenkracht (Dutch for “counterforce”) foundation since 2007. I will never forget how, as a cancer patient, I gave a presentation in the canteen of the Amsterdam Sloten cycling track, together with a few others, about how I had “rehabilitated” myself. I had done that as an expert athlete (triathlete), but also…Continue reading Every cancer patient has the right to rehab
This month we have our 10th World Campus meeting. But who are we? We are a very heterogeneous group. Let me try to make sense of who we are, not by stressing what we have in common or elucidating what common denominator binds us, but by looking at what makes us different. The World Campus…Continue reading Who are we
When Ingemar van der Molen Kuipers was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, the ground was also swept from under the feet of her husband Remco. He didn’t know how to fill his new role and fled into drink and prescription medication. Ten years after the diagnosis and five and a half years after the…Continue reading How-to book for partners of cancer patients
We lost Fabrizia Stavru. I called her our laser beam. She has the unfaltering ability to focus, to stick to relevance, to make breakthroughs. Due to COVID-19, I have never met her in person. I told her that I fell in love with her presence. I speak in the present tense about Fabrizia because her…Continue reading World Campus Laser Beams
A good friend of Inspire2Live, Judith Weeda, has fully recovered from Hodgkin’s disease after some demanding treatment. Together with her brother (who is a designer and gifted cartoonist) she has written a book about her experiences. And it is not your usual heavy personal ups-and-downs story, but a comic graphic novel, filled with cartoons and…Continue reading The White Wall
A diagnosis of cancer is a shock for anyone. It is very unusual for an individual to be prepared for this. It is also unusual for a person to know how to handle it. However, the patient and carer can learn from other people who have come through this experience. A situation like this is…Continue reading Taking responsibility for your treatment
At www.Inspire2Go.nl you find the website Treatment Centres of Excellence. This site started more than a year ago. Its purpose is to directly provide patients with information they can use in their selection of the centre where they want to be treated. The information is the result of an opinion poll among a large number of…Continue reading Website Treatment Centres of Excellence now covers prostate cancer
In Iran, cancer, after cardiovascular diseases and motor vehicle accidents ranks third among the most common causes of death. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and the median age of diagnosis with breast cancer is a decade earlier than in high-income countries (40-50 vs >50 years). In 2017, the age-standardized incidence rate…Continue reading Breast Cancer Incidence and Registry in Iran
