With a little help

Do you believe in generosity? I do. I don’t mean giving away money to anyone, but giving what you can. I, for example, am blessed with a strong and entrepreneurial network in business, media and politics. I have learned that access to it is often the most precious gift I can offer. So I regularly spend time liaising and connecting people.

For instance: do you remember Gerda Persoons? I wrote about her a while ago. She beat colon cancer. But at some point in time during her struggle, she had to walk on crutches. Although temporary, it was a very annoying physical disability, making it hard for her to even do the most basic things. Housekeeping for instance. So Gerda got creative and developed an apron that allowed her to get around the house while carrying things. It made a big difference, not in the least for her moral. But she didn't stop there. She wanted it to be available to other people as well and got in touch with me. I found her story very inspiring and liaised with Alsico, a textile company specializing in workwear. Everything else is history. Gerda's "kangaroo apron" is now called the Kanga? and it's available for sale online. Not the sexiest piece in one's wardrobe, but it sure is functional.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I'm sitting at a dinner party March 24, next to Luc Colemont. He's a doctor, specializing in gastroenterology and apparently he knows Gerda Persoons personally. It's a small world. He's looking to raise awareness on colon cancer, a disease that kills over half a million people worldwide per year. That's more than breast cancer. And what's even worse: it's easy (and cheap) to detect and if detected early, there's a 95% cure rate.

Luc told me he had started a twitter stream and a page on Facebook, but it didn't quite take off as expected. I promised him I'd try to help and a few tweets and emails later that same evening, the amount of followers and 'likes' started growing gradually. I also bought 30 boxes of chocolates that his organization was selling to raise funds. I didn't touch a single chocolate. Instead, I forwarded every box to people I had carefully selected in my extended network. Making sure that those V.I.P's would not only get the message, but also further spread it. Luc told me they raised over 20.000 euro for colon cancer research, selling over 5.000 boxes with chocolates.

I'm so proud I joined Gerda and Luc in their efforts. It has been worth every second. I get to meet so many interesting people, whom I would have never spoken to otherwise, making my network even more valuable. There's just one person I'd like to get in touch with now: Brad Pitt. Seriously. We’ve written him a letter.

Can you help?