by Matthijs Rorije
Cabaret with a mission: to laugh at a fate you wouldn’t wish on anyone. The former friends of the ladies’ circle organize a benefit and the proceeds go to battle against Huntington.
In the Netherlands, 1,700 people suffer from Huntington’s disease. It is a genetic and fatal disease with symptoms of ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. A lot of research is being done, but it takes a lot of money. That is why we are organizing a cabaret night “Plankgas voor Huntington” next Friday evening at the Wennekerpand. All proceeds go to the Huntington Campaign Team.
Marie Scholl has known since 2012 that she is a genetic carrier of Huntington’s disease. “I know it’s coming.” She is a guest on the Schiedam/Vlaardingen talk show Onder Ogen, with Patricia Wessels, the initiator of the benefit show Plankgas for Huntington.
Marie: “If your family has it, you have a 50% chance that you will have it yourself.” There is a lot of shame. Marije explains: “The symptoms can resemble feeling drunk. My mother was a very stately lady, she was a civil registrar at the Schiedam, and she was involved in politics at the CDA. At one point she got into trouble when she was in ‘Beatrixpark she was working and people warned me that my mother was an addict on alcohol, and that she would really drink a lot of alcohol. And that’s pretty intense if your mom has been told that. Then the patients would prefer to stay at home.”
“It’s something that hangs over your head all the time. If you drop something from your hands, or you can’t get out of your words for once, you’re actually afraid it’s going to start,” says Marege. There are all kinds of consequences if you are a genetic carrier, for example you can get a smaller mortgage than people who are not genetic carriers. “As a self-employed person, you cannot have insurance.”
This is an excerpt from Episode 273 of the live TV show Onder Ogen. Watch the full episode here: head-to-head-Mayor-jules-ax-tram-21-special-olympics-world-games-and-huntington-sickness
Onder Ogen is broadcast every Friday from 8 pm from Korenbeurs TV Studio.
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