Hi everybody,

You probably are expecting a message from Valerie but I asked if I could write something on her blog myself. The reason for this is that I also want to contribute my penny to people that are in the same situation.

Let me first introduce myself a little bit. My name is Birger and I am crazily in love with Valerie. We met at my Airbnb and since the first moment I saw her, I was blown away. I never got her out of my head and luckily for me, that feeling was mutual. I am a pilot and fly long distance flights from Brussels.

We became a couple and I have never been happier.

I knew she had cancer but the way Valerie is, I didn’t realized how bad she has been. Valerie is so super positive, I guess that was one of the first things I saw when I met her and one of the reasons I like her so much.

It was only after that one night we went out for dinner and she talked a lot about her cancer, that I started being curious and looking up survival chances of her particular cancer. I remember it was not a pleasant discovery…

I started crying, thinking, why for once I like a person so much, why she had this cancer, why were the odds of surviving a long life so low?

It took me a few days and a lot of talks to my closest friends and of course a lot of thinking by myself how I really fell about this.

In the end I wanted to share the way I feel about this with you.

Actually it doesn’t matter so much. Nobody knows exactly when he or she will die. And almost nobody knows how either. I remembered having read the book “the fault in our stars”. I’m not gonna spoil it for people that still need to read this book but for people that have will know what I’m talking about.

It doesn’t matter the amount of time that has been given to someone, what matters is what you do with the time that has been given to you.

In that perspective, even if Valerie would have 1% of surviving a long life, for me she will be that 1%

The way it all happened has opened my eyes even more than I already had. Valerie lets me see the really important things in life, I was busy living in the future, like so many people around me. I was building up my fortune and decided to enjoy it when I retire.

Well now I think about life a little different. I decided to work only 50% so I can spent more time with Valerie and try to make our dream come true. Right now we dream about living in Malaga, Spain. There are multiple reasons for that, being the weather, sun, light, nature and people.

And being happy, sooo very important, some people live a very long life but feeling miserable, for themselves for whatever reasons. So many people tell me when I tell them our story: “if you can do it and live in Spain, you must do that. I cannot do that”. Well I think everybody is able to realize their dreams if it is a real dream, if it is something someone really wants to be happy.

I am not saying you need to go to Spain to be happy, not at all, happiness is different for eveyone. And most of all, happiness lies within a person itself. There are however circumstances that can promote or increase happiness, and this is what we are going for.

Right now I am waiting in the hospital. Valerie needs to do another scan and blood check. Knowing she needed to go and we would have the results next week, made me nervous when I was away in Africa for work. But the moment I was back in Belgium and I saw her, I forgot everything. She is here, with me, together, in my arms and I love her !

So to everyone that may think that now that he or she is sick and that it will be so hard or even impossible to find love I want to tell you, there is someone that will not mind that you are sick, that your chances of having a long life is lower, and that will nog mind going and standing by your side when you are not the best version of yourself!!!