Metallica gives terminally ill fan the VIP treatment at Amsterdam show
Thanks to a foundation that grants wishes, 30-year-old Alyssa Denkers could attend the Metallica concert in the Johan Cruijff ArenA last night. Her last metal concert. Because last week, the nurse from Limburg found out that she was dying of a rare disease. Alyssa got the VIP treatment, watching the show within a stone's throw from the legendary metal band, AD reports.
Alyssa heard last week that she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a congenital and hereditary condition in which connective tissue doesn’t form properly. Only 1 in 5,000 people suffer from it, and even fewer die from it. “Very little is known about EDS. The disease is different for everyone. It has several variants and degrees. Unfortunately, it hit me very hard,” she told the newspaper.
She got her first symptoms in January and she quickly deteriorated until she ended up in the intensive care when her boyfriend couldn’t wake her up. She is now stable again, but her doctors know she doesn’t have long.
That news hit like a bomb last weekend. “It was awful for me. I had so much pain in my body,” she said. One of the big disappointments was that she wouldn’t be able to stand among 60,000 frenzied metal fans for the Metallica concert she had so been looking forward to. “I feel that my body is slowly failing. I can hardly do anything anymore. I no longer feel any energy in my legs, I am intensely tired, and my heart is not working properly. Things are moving really fast now.”
“It was incredibly sour to give up Metallica. I’ve been looking forward to that for so long. I was so excited to see them for the fourth time. That new album is really great,” Alyssa said. A friend told her to contact Ambulans Wens, a foundation that grants the last wishes of terminal patients. She wasn’t hopeful, but on Tuesday, her phone rang.
Ambulans Wens and the Johan Cruijff ArenA made it possible for her and her boyfriend to attend the show, even though she had to watch from a stretcher. “I felt like a little kid being let loose in a playground for the first time. I am so incredibly happy, so grateful that this was possible. It’s indescribable,” Alyssa said. “I think it’s special that my loved ones will be able to say: we were able to experience something very special with Alyssa. The fact that I can leave that for them is an amazing feeling.”
