Remember this post?
Over half a year after posting, I want to thank all of you who have read this post of mine. At first, I thought my post was too far out of reach, because only a few people liked it, but now I have around 70 notes and this post is still getting liked and reblogged.
This morning, the 3FM DJ Domien Verschuren announced that Tijn, who moved millions with his nail polishing challenge and his backstory, has died at 7 o’clock the same morning. It was a conversation at last year’s Serious Request between Verschuren, who was a participating DJ, and the father about Tijn’s brainstem glioma, that was gradually killing him, and challenge that moved the entire country, including many celebrities and important people.
I can’t believe what Tijn had achieved during the over six months between the first post I wrote about him and this post. All the time, he had been undertaking action despite his health problems.
He received the Cross of Merit and an apostolic blessing from the Pope with a cross. They even decided to name a planetoid after him.
Even after receiving this much recognition, he didn’t stop. He recently launched his own nail polishing brand and was a guest at a late night talk show, together with people who support him. The polishing was for a different purpose now: he and his family collaborated with a foundation set up after the death of another child with brainstem glioma to help beat the now incurable DIPC. That action has grossed over a million euros within a few days.
Many people reacted to his death shocked. We all knew he was going to die, but we didn’t expect this to happen today. The national Red Cross called him “the best fundraiser we ever had”.
Today, the world has lost an incredible six-year-old who has achieved so much in the last days of his life, by doing incredible things we are all capable of doing. May his family be forever proud of their son, grandson, brother, nephew or cousin and what he has done for the good.
A Dutch artist (who regularly struggled in life due to stuttering) wrote a song dedicated to him. These lyrics describe what we all want to say to him right now.
You’re a hero, a wonderful boy, an eternal story.
You’re an example for all of us.
Tijn, je bent een voorbeeld voor ons allemaal.
