Week 9

It has been two months since preparation started.

Statistically, during these two months around 100 children in the Netherlands were diagnosed with cancer. For many of them, treatment will last somewhere between 6 months and 3 years.

Statistically, a person who stands on the start line of a marathon has about an 85% chance of finishing. Almost the same number represents the survival rate of childhood cancer treatment.

What would it mean to increase it by 1%? Or 0.1%? Or even 0.00001%?

I wish I could say that I am the one helping to change those numbers. But the real work is done by the people at the Princess Máxima Center. Every single day, they are the ones making the difference.

The run is only a vehicle. A way to make people stop for a moment. A way to ask the question so that it can be heard — and so that someone may choose to answer.

And I am just a messenger. My role is simply to carry every answer from the start line to the finish.

With an 85% chance of success.