Veerle is 12 years old and lives with her parents Hanneke and Jan Willem, sister Laurine and brother Hidde in the province of Brabant (located in the south of The Netherlands). She is attending secondary school (at 'gymnasium' level) in Tilburg.

Veerle is a real “bon vivant” and has a busy social life. She loves nothing more than having fun dinners and parties with friends and family. She celebrated her 12th birthday in a big way, with many guests (young and old), good food and karaoke until the break of dawn!

Being the social type that she is, Veerle spends a lot of time with her friends; chilling, chatting or shopping. In addition, Veerle is also really into sports. She plays field hockey in the C1 (U14) of the local hockey club and enjoys skiing, tennis, and swimming. She went to a sailing camp in Friesland several times, although, secretly, for Veerle it is more about the social (evening) program than about sailing…

Veerle is a cheerful, positive, curious, smart, funny, enterpreneurial, social, sporty, and strong girl, whom we all love very much.

Eerlier this year, Veerle was told that she has a brain tumor (a DMG) that is very difficult to treat. Obviously, this devestating diagnosis has completely turned Veerle's life (and everyone’s around her) upside down. But what characterizes Veerle is that even in these uncertain and difficult times, she is able to continue to enjoy the beautiful things in life with humor and optimism.

We are all very impressed by her positive attitude to life and enormous resilience. As 'resilience' translates into “veerkracht” in Dutch, we named the initiative Veer(le)kracht!