Bas, a 12-year-old boy from the Groningen town of Veendam, travelled to every train station in the Netherlands with a piano to raise money on behalf of his sister, who has type 1 diabetes.
As of Monday morning, Bas’ campaign had raised nearly 62,000 euros for diabetes research. Bas, who began playing piano a little over a year ago, planned to simply play and sing at each train station with a piano on Saturday in an effort to raise awareness about and money for type 1 diabetes research. His sister, Laura, has the illness. “I hope that the money that I raise can help find a cure for my sister and other people”, Bas told Dagblad van het Noorden.
Bas’ journey started at 6 a.m. in Maastricht, then took him through Breda, Rotterdam Central, The Hague Central, Amsterdam Sloterdijk, Central, Amstel and Bijlmer Arena, Almere, Utrecht Central, Arnhem Central, Nijmegen, Enschede, Zwolle, Leeuwarden and Groningen, and finally ended in Veendam at 1:09 in the morning.
Bas schudt nog even Yesterday van The Beatles uit zn mouw in Leeuwarden. #alsofhetnietsis #dvhn pic.twitter.com/GlzJV3riAi
— Liselotte Schüren (@LSchuren) December 22, 2018
Bas played Christmas songs and rock classics by The Beatles, Billy Joel, Queen and Simon and Garfunkel, among others, on the station pianos, and was joined by other musicians in some locations: in Leeuwarden, he had guitar accompaniment on his cover of “Yesterday”. In Veendam, he was provided with a keyboard to play “Bridge Over Troubled Water” while surrounded by hundreds of supporters.
Dat was m! Bas sloot af met Bridge over Troubled Water van Simon&Garfunkel, goeie muzieksmaak heeft ie ook nog :). Einde van een ongelooflijke dag. #dvhn pic.twitter.com/r0mmvtIyRB
— Liselotte Schüren (@LSchuren) December 23, 2018
Around 1.2 million people in the Netherlands have diabetes, the vast majority of whom have type 2. Type 1 affects roughly 10 percent of all diabetes patients. Both types of diabetes are diseases that impact the regulation of blood sugar, and people with type 1 do not produce insulin at a young age. In total, the fundraising website where Bas’ piano tour was posted has raised 166,119 euros for diabetes research.
Photo source: Diabeatit.nl
