Last month Dutch Olympic swimmer Inge Dekker revealed that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer, putting her future swimming career in limbo while the 30-year-old pursued treatment.
Today, the Dutch Swimming Federation released Dekker’s statement indicating that the swimmer had undergone a successful surgery, which points to the athlete most likely not needing additional treatment at this time. Dekker is now focused on recovery and will gradually resume training, although the possibility of her obtaining slot on the Dutch Olympic team is still unknown.
Dekker will not be competing at the Swim Cup in Eindhoven slated for early April, but it’s too early to tell if she could aim for the European Championships the following month.
Per Dekker’s statement (roughly translated): “Of course I am very relieved that the surgery was successful. It was quite heavy and long procedure, but you are immediately forgotten when you hear good news gets. I am glad that there is an end to a month of uncertainty. During this time I have met people who are uncertain or have not received good results. That got me really seized. I feel like a privileged person that I am fortunate to be healthy again. It was also heartening to note how many people have sympathized with me. That gave me a lot of support. Although I’m still not ready for this moment, I’m going to do everything to bring the Olympic Games in Rio. Perhaps ambitious, but something tells me that I will succeed!”
Being in that age-range, it’s so scary to me how many women I know who have received similar diagnoses. I really hope everyone stays on top of getting things checked out.
It’s why parents need to get over any squeamishness and get their preteens vaccinated against HPV. While not a 100% guarantee of women avoiding cervical cancer down the road, it can cut down on incidents of the condition a lot in the population as a whole.
I agree.
I come from a very conservative family, but when I reached the age to get the HPV vaccine, there were no questions about whether or not I was going to get vaccinated. They told me they would rather not lose their daughter to cervical cancer, if at all possible.
Let us all hope for a complete and timely recovery for Inge.
Glad to hear it. I hope everything goes well for her.
On another note… did you use Google translate for her statement? Did anyone reread it? That was just awful.