Lupus Charity Walk 2023

A contribution in the fight against Lupus, APS,  scleroderma and MCTD

Lupus Charity Walk 2023 is being organized by Tonny van den Hout, Joris Bekker and Robin Bekker in collaboration with NVLE and NVLE-Fund. For more information about NVLE click here.

After a few years she realised this wasn’t exactly her calling and went back to the music world. She has studied sound relaxation and holistic massage. Next to her regular job, she now owns a company providing the aforementioned services.

Alongside her regular job, Tonny has often volunteered in the past. She has helped organize the child day care during summer holidays in her village. She has organized themed gatherings for the organization Balans (organization focussing on helping parents with children that suffer from developmental disorders). As you can see, Tonny has used her organizational skills in many ways and over the years has developed those to where she is now. 

Together with her children Joris and Robin she will be organizing this event. Both of them have a relevant educational background in terms of organizing events. Joris completed a Sports course, during which he has had to organize several sports events. Robin completed a Bachelors (Hons) in Music and Live Events Management, during which she has had to organize festivals including this one for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. 

The creation of Lupus Charity Walk 2023

When Tonny’s sister, Jeanette was diagnosed with Lupus in 2017 she slowly had to start exercising and later even stop working. Jeanette was an active person with lots of passion for her job in health care. When the symptoms of her disease increased, she was forced to give up the physical activities that she loved. This has given her a depressing outlook on the future and even though she is a strong woman is really hard on her.  Tonny, being her older sister, really wants to be there for her and has to watch her struggle every day. Unfortunately, Tonny doesn’t always feel that what she can do is actually helpful or making a difference. She has to watch as her sister is slowly getting worse and is powerless to help her win this unfair fight. She often feels like she can’t be the only one feeling this way about a loved one. Other people must be feeling the same, and there are more patients struggling like this. 

Doctors and scientists are still searching for an effective treatment method. Unfortunately, there simply isn’t enough money to fund adequate research. This is how Tonny came up with the idea of founding the Lupus Charity Walk 2023. With this event we are hoping to raise enough funds to help doctors and researchers find effective treatment methods and in this way help not only Jeanette, but also all the other people suffering from Lupus and related diseases and fight back in this terribly unfair battle.