I was born with transposition of the great arteries and had to be operated upon quickly. The surgery was successful. Since then, I have always felt healthy. From an early age, I was taught to take care of my body. As a child, I didn't understand this, because I didn't have any pain. Today I can well understand how worried my parents must have been.

I firmly believe that it is possible to live a normal life even with a congenital heart defect.

I have always wanted to be able to help children as a doctor, just as I was once helped. But most of all, I want to tell my story to encourage other families. Because I firmly believe that it is possible to lead a normal life even with a congenital heart defect. Of course, as a child, the annual check-ups are annoying, and my scar still attracts the odd curious glance. But I'm happy to put up with all that for the certainty of being allowed to live. The sight of my scars always reminds me that this is not always the case. That you have to fight for the things you really want.

I am very happy to be able to do exactly what I set out to do.

In the meantime, I have realized my dream: I am studying medicine after completing training as a health and pediatric nurse. And I am currently completing a year abroad. I'm very happy to be able to do exactly what I set out to do before I graduated from high school, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.