Tom Savelkoul

A couple of years ago, my parents, brothers and I met Tom and his family in Lloret de Mar, Spain. We all were on vacation there. After an enjoyable two weeks, we stayed in touch, especially with Tom, throughout social media. They lived in Belgium, we lived in the Netherlands, so the communication was limited to these social media. There were no long conversations or anything like that, but we silently kept following each other. We knew what was happening on the other side of the screen. After a while, we got the news that Tom had a very rare, yet aggressive form of cancer in his bones. In the hospital in Leuven, Belgium, they gave up on him after treatment. He went to Essen, Germany, and the doctors managed to keep him alive, reduce the amount and size of the tumors in his body and make his life livable. But lately, things got worse for Tom. His condition was critical due to a double pneumonia. This turned out to be fatal. While he was sick, he got married, he got media-attention, he was a KRC Genk fan, he enjoyed life and he never gave up. That's Tom's most important message: never give up hope. You will be missed, Tom. Rest in peace.

Melanie Derks

10 years ago

Tom was een rustige jongen en super lief voor zijn zusje Nele. Onze jongens vonden Tom tijdens die vakantie heel cool, net ietsje ouder dus erg interessant ;) En idd door FB zijn we elkaar blijven volgen, helaas met een bitter eind.... Zo oneerlijk, veel te jong en altijd positief gebleven. Respect voor je Tom! Maar nu blijven we ook jouw lieve vrouw volgen, Anke. Wat zijn jullie elkaar tot steun geweest, super mooi dit op een afstand hebben mogen "voelen". Lieve Anke, op afstand zijn we bij je en bij de rest van de familie. Ook maandag.... Xx

Tom Savelkoul

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Melanie Derks