Ruben Lenten, de koning van de megaloop, painkiller, Master of Extreme en gewoon een hele sympathieke gast heeft vreselijk nieuws te horen gekregen.
‘You have cancer’, dat kreeg hij een paar dagen geleden te horen in Amerika. Nota bene net op het moment dat hij met zijn verloofde Nikki een leuk en mooi avontuur wilde aangaan in San Francisco, LA en Burningman. Ze wilden vrienden gaan opzoeken om een mooie tijd mee door te brengen. Dat verliep echter anders dan gepland.
In Nederland was Ruben al met klachten naar de huisarts gegaan. Die constateerde geen afwijkingen. In Amerika aangekomen bleven de klachten van pijn in borst en keel en ging Ruben langs een arts. Daar kreeg hij na een aantal scans de verschrikkelijke uitslag te horen.
Een Kankergezwel van 9x9cm was vastgesteld en wel vlak bij zijn hart.
Ruben is nu in goede handen bij specialisten in Amerika. We hopen dat zij hem snel en vakkundig kunnen helpen om deze verschrikkelijke ziekte te overwinnen.
Omdat de zorg en de bijkomende kosten enorm hoog zullen zijn is een fundraiser gestart. 100.000 euro is nodig om Ruben te helpen in zijn strijd tegen deze ziekte.
Klik hier om ook bij te dragen en zo te zorgen dat we snel weer kunnen genieten van Ruben op het water. Op het water (of liever gezegd, ver daarboven), daar hoort hij thuis, niet in een ziekenhuis!
We vinden het mooi om te zien dat zo veel mensen al een donatie hebben gedaan. De teller in de fundraiser staat nu op ruim 77.000 euro! Dat geeft Ruben een mooie steun in de rug in deze moeilijke tijd.
Wij hopen dat de teller snel op die 100.000 euro zal staan, of misschien wel ruim daar overheen. Maar we hopen vooral op een spoedig herstel van deze absolute icoon in de kitewereld.
We wensen Nikki, zijn familie en vrienden heel veel sterkte de komende periode.
Hieronder een quote het bericht van Ruben zelf waarin hij iedereen mededeelt wat hem is gebeurd en hoe hij ermee omgaat.
Dear brothers and sisters from all around the world,
I have some really weird news to share with you. I actually still can’t believe it myself.
I have cancer.
I can’t tell you what it feels like to say that…For the past couple of months Nikki (my fiancé) and I were prepping for a great adventure together. Our intentions were to hang out in San Francisco, LA and BURNINGMAN to spend some time with old and new friends and get inspired by them and all of our adventures together.
We would never have thought that our adventure would be heading in a whole different direction now.The past week I didn’t feel well. I had a really strange pain on the chest and in my throat. Although I thought it could be from my wisdom tooth that was just pulled out, it didn’t feel good and I wanted to see a doctor before we left to the US. So I went to see the doctor at home and she checked my heart, lungs and blood pressure, but everything seemed ok. She thought it might be ‘stress’ and sent me back home instead of investigating more into my symptoms.
Two days later, still not feeling right, we flew out to San Francisco to start our great adventure together.
Unfortunately the pain in my chest and throat increased and I knew something wasn’t right. So I went to the St Louise hospital in Gilroy on Saturday the 22nd of August to get things checked out. After doing an X-ray they saw an inflammation in my chest and wanted to follow up with a CT scan.
20 minutes later our world got turned upside down.
‘ Sir we’ve got some bad news. You’ve got a mass of about 9x9cm by the heart. You need to see an oncologist as soon as possible since it’s in a very sensitive area.’
After the first shock we immediately contacted my amazing friends and after a few phone calls I was on my way to Stanford Hospital, where they have some of the best doctors and know-how in the world to treat this disease.
They did a PET scan yesterday and by the looks of it, the mass didn’t spread anywhere else in my body, so that’s some really good news! They’re thinking it’s a type of lymphoma and that’s a very treatable and curable type of cancer.
Today they will do a biopsy to see what kind of cancer we’re dealing with exactly and how to get rid of it!
As always I feel super positive and am 100% sure I’m going to get through this thing! It’s just a little bump in the road and I will be back on the water before you know it, stronger than ever before! It’s a big rollercoaster ride and I’m ready for it!
I really want to focus on my treatment and recovery… very curious to find out what type it is and how aggressive. For me it is essential to cure this from within and go to the core of this disease that has already thought me a lot over the past couple days and will teach me even more about life and myself. I’ll take it as a gift with a difficult task at hand but with a wonderful outcome if we do this right.
It might be a bit quiet from my side for the next few weeks/months, as I will mainly focus on myself. We want you to know that we really appreciate all the nice messages, love, and support, positive and healing energy we’re receiving from everyone directly, indirectly or through the universe! We’re overwhelmed and feel that the universe is on fire and filled with love.
It makes us feel super strong to cure this the best and healthiest way possible.
That’s why we’re going to need your help for the unknown adventure ahead, which can get into the unknown amounts. Great doctors here in the U.S.A. but unfortunately hospital costs and treatment cost can get up to a million easily. My insurance will hopefully cover the treatment I will have to get but besides that a lot more things come my way that will be very expensive.
My lovely friends of the MaiTai community kicked of a very kind fundraiser and I feel very weird about it but am very aware I will need you at this moment in time in order to get back to where I want to be. If you feel like you can support in any way, please help a brother out so that we can ride, fly, meet, hang, party and love life with all of you again as soon as possible.
Here is a link to the page and please know that your support will go a long way: www.youcaring.com/rubenlenten
MASSIVE shout out and EVEN BIGGER HUGS to everyone involved, thanks for caring and helping so much in these difficult times. Much appreciated!
Much much love!
XX
Ruben & Nikki
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