Queen Maxima will not be attending the opening of the Proton Therapy Center in Groningen on Friday. The queen’s appearance was cancelled due to the death of her younger sister.
Translation by Traci White
The Groninger Internet Courant reports that the official opening ceremony at UMCG will still move forward as planned. According to De Volkskrant, Inés Zorreguieta, the queen’s youngest sister, was 33 years old and apparently committed suicide.
Queen Maxima was planning to attend the official opening of the Groningen treatment center due to her involvement with the children’s oncology center in Utrecht, which is named after her. The Proton Therapy Center at UMCG, which has already been in operation since January 2018, is the first of its kind in the Netherlands. Proton therapy is particularly suitable for treating young cancer patients as it causes less damage to their healthy, growing tissue.