When childhood cancer turned life upside down
KickCancer is the story of a Belgian, happily blended family living with humour, love and small daily joys — until the frightening day they are told that one of their children, Raphaël, has cancer. A tumour in his foot called rhabdomyosarcoma — an indigestible name quickly shortened to “foot cancer”.
It’s the story of a family who tackles the first round of treatments with lousy jokes — because sometimes it’s best to laugh and keep one’s chin up. A family who meets cancer again and again, with several nasty relapses.
A shocking lack of innovation led to KickCancer’s creation
A family who learned the hard way that although incredible breakthroughs are being made to cure cancer, innovation remains an adult-only Holy Grail. Motivated to do more, they decided in 2017 to create KickCancer, a foundation dedicated to funding and fostering innovative treatments for all children and young people with cancer (not just foot cancer).
KickCancer was created thanks to Raphaël — he never asked, but we would never have done it without him (and it meant a lot to him too). He lived with the disease for 11 years. Over those years, not a single drug was developed for his disease. That says everything about why our mission matters.
We need to act for all children and young people affected by cancer!
