Tim is a member of the Roefelraad. This children-municipality-counsel is organised by Tineke, the coach of this ThinkQuest team. Renate interviewed Tim.

“I’m Tim and I’m 12 years old. When I was 6 years old, I found out that I had kidney cancer. I’ve had it for nine months in my body. Six years ago, in November I felt very sick. I had the flu and stomach-ache. I had to go to the doctor but he told me that I had the flu. The doctor sent me to the hospital after a month. Doctors were very busy with researching me. My blood was investigated and X-rays were made. This happened at the second of December 1999. This took place in a hospital in Woerden. That’s where I lived nearby. The doctors told my parents what the results were of the research after a couple of days. I had to stay home. My parents told me that I was suffering from kidney cancer."

"I was replaced to another hospital at the fifth of December the Amsterdam AMC. They could help me over there. I had to go to the hospital for some days a couple of times. I got chemotherapy and many other medicines. I had to go every week to the hospital for chemotherapy. During that treatment I got several injections with that stuff. I lost my hair. That’s the reason why I wore a cap."

"My teacher told my classmates what cancer is, when I had to go to the hospital at the second of December. She also explained why I had to go to the hospital. A lot of classmates sent me sweet things and cards. Besides that, they regularly sent a video with a message. My parents and family supported me a lot. They always were there for me. Sometimes I went to my class to tell what was going on. My classmates had to get used to it in the beginning, but later on they found out that I was still the same Tim."

"I couldn’t go to school any more: if I wasn’t in the hospital I was at home.
I had a lot of headache and stomach-ache. I got tired very soon; this was caused by my medicine. I still suffer from that tiredness. Because of all the chemotherapy, do I now suffer from the chronic tiredness syndrome. This means that I get tired very soon. I can’t run long distances, and write for a long time. That’s why I have a laptop in my classroom."

"What I liked during the period that I was ill was that I didn’t had to go to school. I spent a lot of time in the hospital or at home. It was way too much for me to go to school besides that. I followed private lessons in the hospital. I enjoyed them."

"What I dislike is that, now I’m cured, I still suffer from the chronic tiredness syndrome. My friends and family see that I’m not changed. I’m still the Tim which I used to be."

"I’m not afraid that it might come back. Nowadays, I’m living five years without cancer, so it has a very small chance that it comes back. Once in a year I will have to go to the AMC in Amsterdam for an inspection. I only have one kidney left. They had to remove the left one, because that’s where the tumor was. There was a kind of ‘mistake’ in my right kidney, but that was positive. I have two entrees and two exits."

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