Our mission

We have a mission.  A beautiful mission.  We want to cure every child’s cancer. 

Find new treatments, improve existing ones, and kick children’s cancer to send it far, far away forever and may it never come back! We therefore financially support scientific research, and bring together the drive, inspiration and knowledge of everyone involved.  From researchers, doctors and parents to politicians and pharmaceutical companies. Only a joint effort can ensure that children with cancer are cured and better cured.

We want to make sure all children with cancer are cured, and better cured. By supporting scientific research, removing obstacles and connecting people.

Our story

KickCancer is the story of a Belgian happily blended family living with humour, love and small daily joys until the frightening day when they are told one of their children, Raphaël, then almost nine, has cancer.  A tumour located in the foot called rhabdomyosarcoma – an indigestible name quickly changed into “foot cancer”.

It is the story of a family, which faces the first round of treatments with lousy jokes because it is sometimes best just to laugh and to keep one’s chin up.  Of a family, which, after a whole year of chemotherapy, reaches the Holy Grail of complete remission and is headed back to normal life, ready to leave behind, but not to forget, its past misfortune.

But it is also the story of a family, which encounters cancer again after two years of respite, with a nasty relapse.  Motivated to do more, they embark on an in-depth research effort, learning that all the reassuring innovations one hears about cancer in the news… are for adults only and do not benefit to the children with cancer. And thus, they come to the conclusion that they have to act.

Hence the creation of KickCancer!

KickCancer is a public interest foundation working closely with the KiCa Fund, a Fund dedicated to research in paediatric oncology managed by the King Baudouin Foundation.

Don’t Skip Kids. Join the fight.

Who we are

In the KickCancer family, you will meet:

Delphine Heenen

The mother, founder, director and day-to-day manager.  Delphine was successively a lawyer (Linklaters), a strategy consultant (Bain & Company) and active in the investment world of renewable energy (TTR energy).  Delphine first supported Raphaël in his fight by, among other things, decorating his hospital bedroom with hundreds of drawings made by his school buddies.  Since January 2017, she decided to change tactics and to move up another gear to fight childhood cancers by working full-time for KickCancer.

Gilles Dal

The father, founder and director.  Gilles is an historian, a radio columnist and scenario writer for comic strips. In January 2018, a humorous play about children’s cancer, written by Gilles, was on the bill and a great success– just to prove you that yes indeed, it is possible to laugh about anything!

Jean-Charles van den Branden

The stepfather, founder and director.  Jean-Charles is associate director at Bain & Company where he has been working for over twenty years.  To go hand in hand with Raphaël during his fight against cancer, Jean-Charles learnt all about European soccer tournaments and players, from the Premier League to La Liga – and also, decided to devote part of his time and energy to KickCancer.

Marc Dal

The godfather, founder and director.  Marc is a lawyer and partner at DALDEWOLF.  After a difficult chemotherapy session for Raphaël, Marc brought Raphaël to the locker rooms of his favourite football club to meet his idols.  On that occasion, Raphaël gave his favourite player some words of advice to win the next game… and guess what? He won! 

Raphaël

The eldest son of Gilles and Delphine, an incredibly brave and funny young man, is in complete remission again since the beginning of 2017 (hurrah!) and is very ambitious for all of his thirteen years of age: he wants to become a movie director!  Thanks to the  “Make a Wish” Foundation he will soon direct his first short-movie with 100% professional support.

Lucien

The devoted and lovable younger brother, as well as Louis and Charles, the kind stepbrothers, regularly yet graciously lose their FIFA games against Raphaël and never fail to be too noisy to distract and console Raphaël or simply take his mind off things.

Deborah Janssens

Director, is a partner in M&A, corporate law and corporate finance in the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Brussels. Deborah supports the KickCancer foundation because she strongly believes that that research should not leave kids cancer behind and that children should have access to tailored treatments, which are more innovative and less aggressive for their growing body.

Christophe De Vusser

Director, director at Bain & Company where he has been working for over fifteen years. Christophe was very moved by the events touching his colleague Jean-Charles and his wife Delphine but he also felt the urge to support KickCancer because its mission does not only consist in pure philanthropy (matching donations and projects) but also requires a genuine strategy to improve the ways the “system” works so that the interests of children with cancer be finally taken into account.

Frédéric Rouvez

Director, is one of the founders and executives of the quality food restaurants EXKi. Frédéric wanted to join KickCancer’s battle in order to support the desire of Raphaël’s family to turn an adverse event into a force of change.

Jo Van Biesbroeck

Director, is the director operations of the football club RSC Anderlecht. Jo is also Board member in Telenet, SFI (Lux) and Matexi; previously, he had a long executive career within the famous Belgian brewer AB InBev. Jo is very keen to see cancer research making progress in areas where there is little to no commercial interest to doing so - as is the case in paediatric cancer research.

Céline Ghins

The wonder director. Céline, trained as a lawyer, only worked in marketing in several fields (Bourjois, Shiseido and Fleuris Editions - Mardaga) before leaving for Malaysia where she joined the network of social entrepreneurs ‘Ashoka’ as volunteer. When their 8-months daughter was diagnosed with cancer, Céline and her husband Jérôme put their life on hold to fight by her side. From the long days in hospital they drew an outstanding mastership in the imitation of all sorts of animal noises to make their baby laugh. Once Léonor was declared in remission, Céline looked for a dynamic organization where she could devote some of her time in order to meaningfully contribute to defeat children cancer. Her encounter with Delphine was decisive and since then, Céline actively supports KickCancer in its daily activities.

Adeline Godefroid

Overly-motivated employee. Adeline is a business engineer by training. Because of the leukaemia that took her son away, she felt the urge to devote her energy to the fight against paediatric cancers since June 2018. She nurtures the hope that all children benefit from better treatments and are offered a serene future while she looks after the paperwork and the organisation of events for KickCancer as well as contributes to an increased awareness about the specific issues of paediatric cancers.

Melissa Thomas

Melissa is our latest recruit, a freshly graduated student in marketing. After her first encounter with Delphine, she just knew KickCancer would be THE place for her to work and wanted to join the fight against paediatric cancers. Our Junior Kicker helps with our administrative tasks and our communication work. Melissa is the face behind our social media posts: she is the one keeping every one up to date on our latest activities and aware of the tricky issues around kids' cancer. As a proud aunt of two little ones, Melissa really hopes to contribute to our mission to cure all children with cancer and to cure them better.

I’m too small to cure, are you too big to care?