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Welcome to The Van Recovery Blog

Welcome to the official blog page for the van recovery.

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Here you will discover the full story and all the reasons why I am doing what I am doing right now.

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If you haven't seen the first youtube video,

I highly suggest you go check that out because it will explain a lot...

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For those already informed get ready to dive deeper into the van conversion then anywhere else.

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With behind the scenes pictures and stories about the amazing people that helped my build Basil the 2013 peugeot boxxer.

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The Dream:

As a kid we sometimes dream.

Dreaming about becoming professional footballer, skater, mountainbiker, skier,...

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Those dreams sadly come and go (not that they are unachieveble 😉).

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But me being me I didnt like that, instead I started thinking about solutions for this problem of constant switching of interests and thus constant switching of "the dream of making it in that industry".

As a 15 year old interested in those extreme sports the youtube algorithm served me some ridiculous gopro edits and something catched my eye.

Somewhere in one of those videos was a completely decked out mercedes sprinter van.

That day something flipped inside me...

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"I dont need to be a pro to live in a van"

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Money that's what i needed because those dream looking vans dont go for peanuts,

sadly I am not the best with money as most 15 year olds are I guess.

A shit load of stuff happend between the ages of 15 and 18 

(legal working age in Belguim).

So saving money was not on my radar, but the seed

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"the vanlife dream"

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was planted thanks to the maybe not so fun experiences and it was growing at a rapid rate.

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Not knowing what I wanted to do after highschool was one of those not so fun things.

Especially not when I was crying in the car coming back from parent-teacher conference about the fact that I only like skiing, skateboarding and mountainbiking.

My moms mind was set on those more "traditional vocations" like

bike mechanic or ski teacher,...

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I already had the ultimate path in front of me but my lack of self confidence blocked it in a major way.

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Funny how life can then all of a sudden throw you a nasty curveball that changes it all.

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  • "That Epic GoPro Video"
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The Curveball:

Monday March 25, was supposed to be a day filled with fun, it being my only day off work as a bartender.

(I was getting better with the money part for the vanlife dream 😎.)

 

A ride towards the sports store for some fresh climbing shoes in the morning, quickly passing the townhall to renew my ID, a sunny gravel ride in the afternoon.

 

For the evening: a climbing session in a (for me) new boulder gym together with my best mate his girlfriend and her stepbrother.

After that we would be doing some planning for an exciting summer trip we where all going on.

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But the moment I got up the stairs and stepped in my friends appartment after the climbing session, I got a intense headache like I never had before my eyeside got really bad as if someone put a really old piece of crumpeld plastic in front of my eyes. 

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"Take a painkiller"

"Go sit in a dark room for a while"

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Everything pointed towards a migraine attack wich I have never had in my life so I could only accept that this is how that would feel. 

Sadly these symptoms would not go away, not a single bit of planning for that summer trip happened.

I rushed home throwing up on the side of the freeway.

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After arriving home my mother immidiatly staded the obvious "Jonas this is not normal for you" and we rushed towards the ER.

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"We always take a CT scan with patients that come in with a migrain attack for the first time and Mr. Reynaerts we have sadly found large amounts of tissue in between and on your brain that we can confirm are some form of

glioma = braintumor" 

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Monday 25 of March 2024 just turned into the darkest day of my life.

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I didn't know what to feel or think in that moment until I turned towards my mom. With a single look into her eyes my entire life flashed in front of me...

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There I was crying in my moms arms trying to wrap my head around the fact that

I am about to start the biggest climb in my life possibly without

a real end point.

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Withholding myself from looking up what my life expectency is keeps me up everyday and lights up a spark that has always been there where I am now finally acting upon.

 

"Not giving a single fuck about what people think of your plans or ideas"

 

  • "Life flashing in front of my eyes""

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It Does Not End:

Hello there, It has been a while since the last post, that sadly enough has its reasons😣.

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After 33 sessions of radiation therapy and the start of chemotherapy I was surprisingly fresh and didnt lose to much muscle mass or range of motion for that matter. This meant I was able to slowly keep working on Basil.

Wich I would be very gratefull for later on.

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Be sure to check out the videos on my youtube channel to stay up to date !

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Unbeknownst to me something was lurking in the shadows, after a week of "recovery" I started feeling dizzy every morning and had to vomit on a daily basis even without any food digested.

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Went in for new MRI's to confirm a second tumor was growing,

luckily on a different part in my brain (cerebellum)

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This growth was sadly not uncommon for a type 4 tumor. 

But it being in that part of my brain made it extremely hard to do anything, by the time we restarted with radiotherapy.

(It was growing during chemo, so chemo was ruled out this time)

I was already bedritten for a week,

losing muscle everywhere with all the pills I had to start taking again.

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To be completly honest there where then moments in the hospital I was slowly losing hope

Only after enough sessions under that doomed tumorkiller laser at the hospital slowly but surely made me feel better.

 

Right now I feel good enough and I am back home,

Not without having to work double as hard for all the small things in my life.

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Stairs are a nightmare.

Showering can be outright dangerous and eating feels somewhat like a sin,

because there is no way I can move/exercise enough to be healthy.

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Anyway, I should trust the people around me "Jonas those things will come back".

I hope they soon do, I see myself working on Basil in the near future to get another step closer to that forsaken dream.

 

Thats why on the right you see a sketch on how I would love the inside of the van to look like

 

A fixed bed for sure, some overhead cabinets, a simple 2 burner stove, a diesel heater underneath one of the benches, the already installed roof vent 😎 and a closed off cab for privacy and insurence reasons.

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For now the focus is still on the remaining radiotherapy sessions and then getting stronger again to start building again.

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  • "Life flashing in front of my eyes""

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