De Kooiman ME Group

Ended
€6,886.77donated
138%
Goal: €5,000.00

At the beginning of March last year, Mirjam Kooiman contracted encephalitis out of the blue: an inflammation of the brain. She lost her memory, but through the endless persistence of her boyfriend Maarten, a doctor at the OLVG Amsterdam emergency department realised it might be meningitis encephalitis. Prompt medical action ensured that Mirjam's memories were able to return. Thankfully, this means she still has a yesterday. However, the realisation that things could have turned out very differently is proven by the story of Hakimu Mwandima in Tanzania – the father of a good friend of Mirjam and Maarten, and the grandfather of Maarten's godchild – who contracted encephalitis in the same week as Mirjam, and died from it a few days later. That is why we – Mirjam, her mother Cora, and her brothers Frank and Robert – will be walking 50 km (and walking, and walking) on Saturday 28 June (2025) for the ItsME Foundation, to generate more awareness and scientific research into meningitis encephalitis. Would you like to sponsor us for this?

Participants

These amazing people are committed to promoting more international research into meningitis. Will you help us achieve this project’s goal? Your donation is greatly appreciated. Every euro counts! Below, you can donate to individual people or to teams. You can search by team or by the participant’s name.

Become a volunteer?

As a professional charity, we try to keep costs as low as possible. Therefore, we can use all the help we can get. As Lionel Richie once sang, “Is it me you're looking for?” In other words, if our foundation's purpose aligns with yours, please sign up to volunteer.