The Netherlands
“Life doesn’t always go the way you planned it to go. Sometimes you have detours you have to take.”
This quote by Andrew McCutchen is a good way to start off Sophia’s bio. After losing her dad at young age, she knew cancer would always play a role in her life. Nevertheless, getting diagnosed herself at the age of 18, came as a big shock. Even though Sophia has faced her fair share of adversities, she now puts her personal experience and infinite ambition to good use as a patient advocate and ambassador. At the Dutch National AYA ‘Young & Cancer’ Platform, she is involved in the development and implementation of age-specific care for Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) patients, as well as working on different research- and communication projects in the AYA-cancer field.
“Let’s fight for a world where we do not only focus on curing cancer, but also on healing people back to decent quality of life after cancer, and continuing to work on prevention. I don’t want a world full of survivors dealing with late effects, I want a world where no lives get turned upside down by cancer anymore.”