The Dutch swimmer beat cancer at a young age and continues to do well in the fight against cancer.
Wanting to be a swimmer since childhood, Maarten was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 19.
From an early age, he was noted for his talent in swimming.
Doctors stated that the young swimmer’s chances of surviving leukemia were negligible.
Maarten proved his strength to them. He beat cancer and not only that, but 7 years after his illness, he won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Maarten was an athlete who knew how to push his own limits and achieved the impossible.
Maarten recently wanted to be a key part of a great campaign. This campaign aimed to raise money for cancer research.
For this campaign, he wanted to swim the entire 200 kilometer Elfstedentocht course in the Netherlands.
He was planning to complete the course in 3 days. These 3 days included short sleep breaks.
As Maarten made progress, he began to feel bad and the water was very dirty. He had to leave.
He managed to swim a distance of 163 km in 55 hours.
He spent 55 hours in the water. And after 55 hours, his hands were like this:
He looked very tired and his feet were similar to his hands:
Maarten’s effort paid off. It was a huge success and more than $4 million was raised for the campaign. ???
