Jeroen Hangx’s mother is very proud of her son who took part in Over Mijn Lijk. The TV program won the Golden Televizier Ring on Thursday evening. Presenter Tim Hofman reflected extensively in his victory speech on ‘his friend’ Jeroen, who grew up in Reutje near Sint Odiliënberg.
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Jeroen made a great impression on TV viewers, because he was positive in life despite his incurable illness. He passed away in August. The BNNVARA program followed him and four other terminally ill young people in their good and bad moments.
‘Crown on their work’
Mother Michelle Kox-Stoffels watched the prize gala together with Esmee, Jeroen’s girlfriend. “I am very proud that they have won. A crown on their work,” says Michelle. “The fact that these people receive such a verdict at such a young age and that they still show what life actually means and how to deal with it, that really touched me.”
Hereditary disease
Jeroen was 16 years old when his father died. Six months before his father’s death, he learned that it was a hereditary disease and that he might have inherited those genes. “He got tested when he was a bit older,” says his mother. “Then it turned out that he was also hereditary. In addition, there was something in his head.”
‘Very proud mother’
Jeroen Hangx, also called ‘Hangxie’ by his friends, was operated on in November 2017 and a month later he got the results: he had only one to one and a half years to live. In the end he got a few more ‘spare years’. “How he handled that verdict, what he made of it and the message he left us: if you ask me as a mother, I am very proud of it.”
The Limburger, who lived his last years in Amsterdam, first had doubts about participation Over my dead body. According to his mother, Jeroen went overboard after looking back on previous seasons. “He said that Jip had inspired him enormously,” says his mother. Jip was a candidate on another season of the TV show and also carried his illness with loads of positivity. “He had a form of bone cancer and was a young boy. He also had something like it: make something of it, grab the life. Jeroen tried that too.”
Friends with Tim Hofman
By participating in Over my dead body Jeroen became good friends with presenter Tim Hofman. “Tim sometimes said: Jeroen taught me so many life lessons that I would normally never have learned. We are the same age, the same boys, drink a glass of beer, walk here in Amsterdam. It really touched Tim to see how Jeroen dealt with it.” , says Michelle.
View the announcement and the speech of Tim Hofman here:
‘Be kind to eachother’
According to Jeroen’s mother, he would have liked it if he had experienced the TV program taking the Gouden Televizier-Ring. “But that wasn’t that important to him. I think his lessons have been especially important: be kind to each other and focus on family and friends. He reminds us that things that worry us so much don’t matter. hope that people will take his lessons with them and I think he had hoped that too. That has been the most important thing for him. “
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