Azalea, azalea...

Thirty years ago, an organisation was formed to fight against cancer. In those days, cancer was a killer disease. Most of the people diagnosed with it, died within a short (or a bit longer) time. Thanks to organisations such as Kom Op Tegen Kanker (=fight against cancer) enough money is raised yearly to pay for new research and such. Thanks to it, new treatments are introduced and most of them don't cost a lot to the cancer patient. If my kidney cancer had been diagnosed just ten years ago, there wouldn't have been a treatment available. Now there is, and I'm very glad I can take this medicine.

Kom Op Tegen Kanker organises a couple of main events throughout the year. One of them was last weekend. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday volunteers all over the country sold azalea's for 7€ each. They raised around 2,7 million euro this year, a bit more than last year. Lots of people buy the plants, because nearly everyone knows someone who suffers from cancer.

That's a fact. When I was younger, not so many people had cancer. It was relatively rare. But now... I never thought I'd get it, but see. And my neighbor on the right had it (she died last year September) and several colleagues from my former school. Also my other neighbor on the left now suffers from it.

And people are more willing to spend money on something they know then for a cause far away. Floodings and earthquakes in far away places don't raise the amounts of money that Kom Op Tegen Kanker does.

Both my sister and I donate a (small) amount every month. And when we're  no longer there, our belongings will go entirely to the organisation.