Frederik
WHERE FROM?
I am Frederik.
I’m 35 years old and was born in Hamburg in 1989.
I graduated from high school in Norderstedt.
I am an automotive engineer.
Before my studies, I completed an apprenticeship as an automotive mechatronics technician.
I have been a volunteer at the THW for 22 years.
Here I met people early on who share an interest with me: Helping.
I was deployed in the Berchtesgadener Land region when masses of snow caused exceptional situations, so to speak, and also in the Ahr valley during the floods in summer 2021.
Working for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief means a lot to me, even in Schweinfurt, where I’ve lived for seven years.
I’ve settled in well in Bavaria, even though the north is still my home.
I enjoy getting involved.
I would like to do the same for KAKS.
I became aware of the foundation through an article in Der Spiegel.
I enjoyed my first digital contact with the KAKS encouragers.
I think I could answer a lot of questions.
I had bilateral retinoblastoma; I was one year old when the doctors made the diagnosis.
And removed my left eye.
The first time my parents took me to an ophthalmologist was when I was a baby, about six months old.
But it was almost a year before I was diagnosed and enucleated.
A classic medical mistake.
Apparently in my case there is a hereditary predisposition.
My father, who sadly passed away a few years ago, had no sight in his eye, the other one having been removed in the 1950s.
I don’t know much about it.
My mother also passed away; she succumbed to breast cancer.
Cancer has been a direct companion to my family and me for long periods of my life.
I can only say that soberly.
SHADOW SIDES?
At the age of 20, I was diagnosed with cancer again.
A carcinoma in the corner of my left eye.
I was out of action for three months.
I haven’t worn a glass eye since then.
Of course, the doctors could resurface the area and restore the eyelid.
And at first I wanted to have it done, but I walk around like this and live with it.
The looks from the adults were difficult.
Even the children, who didn’t avert their eyes.
Let them look, I thought at the time.
And the physical strain was hard.
I was off work for a long time.
These are certainly the difficult, dark phases in my life.
The separation from my wife is also part of it.
All that is behind me now.
Unfortunately, I’m currently going through another difficult phase.
The retina of my eye is threatening to detach.
Without going into detail: There were treatment options.
I have decided on one.
And it’s tough.
But for me there is no alternative.
But it is successful and worth pursuing.
WHERE TO?
I am a participant in RB studies.
At the eye clinic in Essen and currently at the medical university in Hanover.
This is research into genetic predisposition.
I would like to help clarify the question of where the cancer came from.
Without expectations.
Without a basic attitude.
Retinoblastoma is a rare disease, although there are 5000 to 7000 new cases every year.
But the number of studies is not immense.
As a participant in a study, I have the feeling that I can make a contribution to raising awareness.
It is the potential for help that I want to give.
And this is where I see potential for KAKS: I want to pass on what I have experienced.
But that also means not being treated any differently than anyone else – without RB.
My father was always an independent person because his parents raised him to be.
And he passed this level of independence on to me.
His legacy, so to speak.
OVERVIEW?
Cancer will get me again.
But it won’t stop me from living my life.
You can do anything.
Frederik
Encourager
