Michaël Van Waeyenberge fund

Michaël Van Waeyenberge, student at the abbey school of Zevenkerken (B), passed away peacefully on 16 February 2001, two months before his eighteenth birthday, after a hard fight of almost two years against leukaemia.

The many friends, inspired by his aura, continue Michaël’s initiative by establishing the Michaël Van Waeyenberge Fund to offer anyone who has leukaemia a better chance of recovery.

The purpose of this fund is to improve the physical and psychological well-being of Belgian people suffering from malignant diseases of the blood. Despite great progress in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphoma patients in the past few years, we are still powerless in many cases. Therefore the fund wishes to contribute to the scientific development of better and more efficient therapies, amongst other things regarding stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy and the fight against the complications after chemotherapy. By contributing to build up the navel string blood bank, the fund wishes to guarantee that everyone, without distinction, gains access to this new source of stem cells in order to have a better chance of recovery.

But the fund also wishes to contribute to the alleviation of psychological and social needs of young patients suffering from diseases of the blood. Therapies, which are most of the time very intensive, require a lot of psychological courage and perseverance while the social pressures on the environment can be very enormous.

At last, the fund wants to take the necessary initiatives towards the management and the government so that new therapies are more quickly accessible to everyone, so that new medication is more quickly refundable and so that the costs of the patient and his family are not so high.

Professor Dr. Marc Boogaerts