Although Robert Doornbos (40) and Chantal Bles have a happy life together with their two children Jada and Josh, it has not always been easy. Their daughter Jada has been seriously ill. When she was two she was found to have kidney cancer with metastases. In ‘Rooijakkers over de Floor’ they look back on this sad period.
“The ground is falling from under your feet”
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Robert remembers the exact date they received this news. “April 24, 2018. That is a date that you will not soon forget,” he says. “Terrible,” he adds. Robert was in England on the same day, when his – then still pregnant – wife Chantal went to the doctor with their daughter Jada. After all kinds of investigations were carried out, Chantal already started ringing a bell. Despite that, she wanted to stay positive for her “little one lying there tense.”
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Robert Doornbos and Chantal Bles are more grateful in life after Jada’s illness
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It wasn’t long before the terrible news had to be delivered to Chantal and her daughter Jada. The doctors said about Jada: “She has a tumor measuring 12 by 12 centimeters on her kidney with possible metastases.” Chantal says that ‘the ground sank under her feet’ when she heard this news. “I started screaming and I started hitting him,” Chantal says. “I was shaking unbelievably,” she adds.
She decided to call Robert, who was still in England, immediately. Because of the shock Chantal was in, it was the doctor who brought the bad news to Robert. “I get the phone and the man says: ‘Your wife cannot speak and your daughter is also here. I have been diagnosed with cancer. It is wrong. We are now going to the hospital,'” says Robert about the phone call. “I sat on the floor. I went crazy,” he says.
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Robert immediately left for the airport together with his father-in-law Jos to take the first possible flight to the Netherlands. However, this did not go so smoothly, because all flights were fully booked. “I really moved heaven and earth to be back in about six hours,” says Robert.
Once they arrived at the Ronald McDonalds hospital, Chantal and Robert were inundated with information. “It is a large tumor and the treatment plan is as follows; first we will cut open the tumor. It will be a ten-hour operation,” explains Robert.
Despite the trust Robert and Chantal had in the doctors, they were extremely tense about the operation. The surgeon told Robert, “Whatever you can do on the track, Robert. I can do that here in this room. I’ll take good care of your daughter.” These words ensured that Robert could entrust his daughter’s life to the doctors with complete abandon.
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Chantal Bles candid about a rough period with daughter
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In order to be fully there for Jada, Chantal and Robert had to make a difficult decision. Chantal was heavily pregnant and had decided to have their baby Josh get through a caesarean section, so that she could be there for Jada during her chemo. This was not easy for them either, as Josh ingested a mouthful of amniotic fluid during the cesarean section, which caused fluid to enter his lungs. This put Josh on a ventilator. “I got it in my hands, but it was blue and made no sound,” says Robert. “We had ended up in intensive care for a few days. We were in the same Intensive Care Unit with Jada a few days before,” explains Chantal.
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Also read:
Robert Doornbos and Chantal Bles are more grateful in life after Jada’s illness
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Jada has since been declared cancer-free in February 2019. Since she has recovered, Robert and his wife Chantal Bles are a lot more grateful in life. The smallest moments are cherished. “The first time you walk with her in a park and a little wind blows and a strand of hair blows away. You don’t forget moments like that so quickly”, Robert gives as an example.
Rooijakkers Over The Floor can be seen weekly at 9.30 pm on RTL 4.
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