He had hoped to live for years to come. Jelle van Tilburg has not been awarded it. The resident of Bergen op Zoom, who gained a lot of fame last year through a video showing that he played guitar during his brain surgery, died on Saturday morning. He would have turned 36 by next month.
His wife Kim announced the death on Facebook. They have been together for 12 years. Jelle was ‘the most beautiful person’ she has met in her life, she says gratefully. Her ‘sweet, beautiful’ husband succumbed to the effects of a brain tumor.
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‘Just a scare’
Jelle van Tilburg was suddenly told in January last year that he needed surgery on that large brain tumor. “I was not ill at all, so that was quite a shock,” he told Omroep Brabant. After the instrument builder received that diagnosis, he immediately made two decisions. That he wanted to play guitar during the procedure and that more money needed to be spent on research. He has managed to do both, his fundraising campaign raised more than 11,000 euros.
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His operation, during which he was just awake, was filmed. The images showed how Jelle gave a special ‘concert’ for the doctors, nurses and anesthetists present. “Pleasant is a strange word for an operation, but the doctors were such nice quiet people and there was a good atmosphere. Then you can do nothing but surrender to it. And if I can play a little guitar too, it is completely beautiful ”, he said about it.
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In the video you can see and hear how Jelle plays the guitar. The text continues below.
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A few months later he was already doing odd jobs in his studio at home in Bergen op Zoom. There the socially active Jelle repaired and built guitars and mandolins. Then it went well with him.
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Deployed for fellow human beings
A few months later, when Omroep Brabant contacted again, there was apparently nothing wrong. Despite a course of chemotherapy he remained optimistic and not only that. Van Tilburg took part in various campaigns in Bergen op Zoom to make people happy. And for his 36th birthday, he did not ask for gifts, but for donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, USA, which specializes in treatments for children with cancer.
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Jelle once expressed the hope of being able to stretch it for at least another five years. “Or even longer”, Kim also held on to a straw. Within a year of the operation, however, this period of uncertainty and hope came to an end. In no time it led to a huge stream of statements of support on Jelle’s Facebook page. ‘Your strength and urge for life will always remain with us’, was one of the many responses.
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