She is in the third year of her law studies in Utrecht when Floor van Liemt is told on 11 December 2017 that she has metastatic lung cancer and has a few weeks to live. A new, targeted therapy does not make that prediction come true, but her future prospects remain uncertain.
At the beginning of 2018, Van Liemt wrote a series of columns about her life with and despite her illness NRC. Her non-fiction book will be released later that year White Raven from. She now lives in Amsterdam, studies art history, makes paintings, and has founded the F|Fort Foundation, a foundation that is committed to the mental well-being of young adults with cancer.
Her photography book will be published tomorrow: The Common Denominator – Young Adults With Cancer Imagining the Unspeakable, in which she and photographer Loet Koreman (31) portray eleven young adults with cancer in 66 images.
The common denominator is a coffee table book. What’s the thought behind it?
Pointing to the title in gold letters: “I made it a bit glamorous on purpose, even if it’s about a heavy subject. With the foundation and the book I wanted to create something that is also a bit young and hip, because I missed that myself. I never wanted to talk to fellow sufferers—while that might have been a good thing—because I imagined a group discussion in a sterile hospital. I wanted to make something that young people with cancer think: I want to be part of this.”
Whence the title?
“The common denominator is about something you have in common: cancer is what the people in the book and I have in common. At the same time, ‘divider’ also stands for cell division, which is cancer, and ‘mean’ can also mean ‘not nice’. So it’s a mean cell division that we share with each other, and we’re now sharing the book with the outside world.”
How are you?
“I still take a tablet that suppresses the cancer, but it doesn’t work optimally. So I’m going backwards, but very slowly. I don’t want to do life-prolonging chemo anymore, because they don’t give me a quality of life. But maybe there will be a new treatment that offers perspective again – I’ve experienced that before. That’s why I can never really say how it will go. I feel fit now and I am happy with that.”
Your book says, “Being young and having cancer don’t mix.” What do you mean?
Laughing: “Well, it’s not true that a certain age is associated with cancer. But I mean you’re very moving at a young age, while cancer means sitting still. When you are eighty it is also terrible to get sick, but you are no longer in the phase of studying, making a career, starting a family.”
What are you running into yourself?
“When I became ill I lived in a student house, but suddenly I was back on the couch with my parents. We live in a time when everything is going around in WhatsApp groups, so I was very concerned with what others thought at the time. I was afraid of being labeled ‘patient’ and being ‘news’ and not being seen for the other things that I am. Now I am no longer insecure about that. Now I am working on the theme of fertility, because in some cases chemotherapy can make you infertile.”
While many peers are engaged in dating and sex.
“I was ‘clean’ for periods, but not cured; I have a chronic problem. I took medication, felt good, looked healthy, while I was actually very sick. But hey, you don’t put that on your Tinder profile. When you are young and have cancer, it seems to the outside world that your development has come to a standstill. But that is not true. You are just like your peers looking for love, or maybe just a cozy one night stand. That’s why I sometimes didn’t tell you anything about my illness during dates, because then the light-heartedness was gone. If it got more serious with someone, I would of course start the conversation. Despite the illness, I never let myself be stopped from dating, in fact: I got into a relationship after I had already become ill. But other young adults may not be dating, who think: nobody wants me because I’m sick. I think that’s terrible. You still have so much to offer, you are just human.”
Did you hear that from the people portrayed in the book?
“Certainly, uncertainty is paralyzing. I also heard that there is a taboo on problems – caused by cancer – in the bedroom. Incidentally, I always thought: if I become bald, dating is more difficult, because then it shows that you are sick. But a portrayed from the book said that she started dating a lot during her chemo, she thought that was a nice distraction. She wore different wigs, giving her an alter ego. When asked how she did that in bed, she said, “Then I just told them not to touch my hair.” Very refreshing.”
What else did the young adults encounter?
“Some are still looking for a home, or are experiencing financial stress, but are unable to find a job because of their illness. Freelancers no longer receive disability insurance. That makes me really angry.”
Why did you want to make this book?
“There needs to be more awareness in care for the mental problems of young people with cancer. In the doctor’s office it is about the growth of the tumor. But you walk out with the question: how am I going to do this with my studies and work, and can I still have children?”
“We have to be seen as a different group than the elderly or children, because we run into age-specific things. Every year, 2,700 young adults are diagnosed with cancer. In addition, the book is intended to offer comfort and recognition to the target group. The creative process was also healing for the participants themselves: you can express in images what is difficult to talk about. They can show that to their environment. In addition to all the worries, the photos also show who they are, precisely without their illness. What they didn’t let take from them, what they dream of.”
Which of the stories in the book did you remember the most?
“I have built a special bond with each participant. We have a lot in common, and yet everyone’s concerns look different. One of the participants was doing research into cancer at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and suddenly found himself in the waiting room. One is in the middle of college, the other noticed a lump in her breast while feeding her baby, and another was just kicking an addiction when he fell ill. They are all unique stories.”
“One of the people portrayed has since passed away, which of course means a lot to me. She sometimes found it difficult to discuss with her environment what she was going through. Of course we needed few words together. That was a special contact. She has seen the photos and the text, she was proud of them. I like to be able to show that part of her, as if she still lives on a bit.”
Floor van Liemt & Loet Koreman, The common denominator, €50, F|Fort Foundation. All proceeds from the book go to the foundation.
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