Dutch presenter Dieuwertje Blok (66) quits her work and disappears from public view for a while because her nose has to be amputated. The Dutch woman has cancer and previous attempts to combat the malignant cells were unsuccessful.
“I find it very strange to seek publicity myself,” says Blok in an interview with De Volkskrant. “But I want to be in control. At some point I will have to go outside again and then I like the idea that people know what it is and how I feel about it. Because what needs to be done is very rigorous.”
According to Blok, it will take “a while” before she gets a prosthesis. “So then it’s better that everyone knows what’s going on with me.” Blok’s nose has been irradiated “from very close” and the presenter has also tried immunotherapy.
© ANP / Anneke Janssen
Both treatments did not work. “It already didn’t feel good,” she says. “It also smells a bit in my nose.” When Blok was told that a nasal amputation was necessary, it was “a big shock” for her. “My first reaction was: if that has to be done, then I don’t actually know whether I want to live anymore,” says Blok.
She now looks at it differently. “Now I think: go, get rid of that cancer. It was my nose or my life. And then there was no longer a moment when I wanted to choose my own nose.”
