Cancer

Saskia Wempe, a member of Eindhoven's city council since 2018, has died. A member of the conservative VVD party, she entered politics six years ago and was in middle management at Spar Holding until last month.

Her death was announced by Eindhoven mayor John Jorritsma. He said her death followed repeated battles with cancer.

She was first diagnosed with the illness over five years ago, reported the Eindhovens Dagblad. Wempe twice went through treatment.

From 2021 boys in the Netherlands will also be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus virus (HPV), State Secretary Paul Blokhuis of Public Health announced on Friday. Currently only girls are vaccinated against this virus, which can cause cervical cancer.

The Royal Family said goodbye to Princess Christina at the Noordeinde Palace in a private funeral on Thursday. The Princess died on Friday at the age of 72 after a long struggle against bone cancer.

The coffin with Princess Christina's remains stood in the Dome of Fagel on the Palace grounds since Tuesday, so that family, friends and guests could say their goodbyes, NOS reports. On Thursday the coffin, with sunflowers on it, was transferred from the Dome to the carriage house of the Royal Stables.

Last year over 153 thousand people died in the Netherlands. With nearly 47 thousand deaths, cancer remains the most common cause of death in the country, followed by cardiovascular disease which caused 25 percent of the deaths, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday. 1 percent of last year's deaths were caused by flu.

Herring season is officially underway in the Netherlands. The first barrel of Hollandse Nieuwe herring, a Dutch specialty, was sold on Tuesday and raised 95.5 thousand euros in a charity auction, beating the previous record by 500 euros.

Proceeds from the annual event at the Scheviningen fish market were raised for the non-profit group Mag Ik Dan Bij Jou. The organization provides financial assistance to parents of children with cancer, so the parents can spend more time by their child’s side day or night.

In 2016 Dutch cancer patients were treated with medicines of which the active substance came from a rejected Chinese factory, where there was a serious risk of products being contaminated, Zembla reports based on its own research.

Last year 116 thousand Dutch people were diagnosed with cancer, according to the Netherlands' comprehensive cancer center IKNL. Especially the number of patients with skin cancer increased significantly over the past years, NOS reports.

Cancer was the most common cause of death in the Netherlands last year, with 31 percent of the 150 thousand people who passed away dying of the disease, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday.

More men than women died of cancer last year. 35 percent of the men who died in 2017 died of cancer, compared to 27 percent of women. The number of people who died of cancer also increased. Last year 47 thousand people in the Netherlands died of cancer, compared to 45,279 in 2016, 44,195 in 2015 nd 42,984 in 2014. 

The Dutch Network for Addiction Care, an umbrella organization for various organizations dealing with addiction, is joining a major lawsuit against the tobacco industry. "The cigarette is a criminal product and all 'dealers' must be dealt with. This product is so harmful. It's unbelievable that it is just in the supermarket", spokesperson Robert van de Graaf of the network said to AD.

Eight cinemas in Amsterdam are paying tribute to Mayor Eberhard van der Laan. Next week these cinemas will screen a 2 minute long video, which Amsterdam residents made after Van der Laan announced his lung cancer diagnosis earlier this year, during the previews before the main movie begins, Jean Mineur, cinema advertising director, said to RTL Nieuws.

Dutch marathon swimmer Maarten van der Weijden managed to swim across the Channel between England and France twice in succession on Sunday. He arrived on the English coast in Dover late last night, after leaving from that same coast during the early hours of Sunday morning, RTL Nieuws reports.