Blok called the newspaper herself to tell her story. “I find it very strange to seek publicity myself,” she says. “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.”
The presenter felt a ‘very small hard spot’ on the inside of her nose more than a year ago. The doctor thought it was a wart and treated it with nitrogen, but it did not go away. After further investigation it turned out to be skin cancer.
It was only in her nose, which made her eligible for a treatment in which the cells are irradiated from very close range. “The specialist almost hugged me, because that helps in 95 percent of the cases, so this just went away, hoppetee.”
But it didn’t help, a bump actually appeared on the outside of her nose. “It was then discussed for the first time that part of my nose might have to be removed, and the doctor had an artificial nose in her hand.”
“My first reaction was: if that’s what I have to do, then I don’t really know if I want to live anymore. Not dramatic, but more like: OK, I’ve had a nice life for 66 years, and I don’t know if the rest of my life will have enough quality if I have to continue like this.”
Prosthetics
The amputation indeed turned out to be necessary, because immunotherapy also did not work. She now looks at it very differently: she wants to live, even without a nose. “It was my nose or my life. And then there was no longer a moment when I wanted to choose my own nose.”
She sees it as an ‘adventure’. “I have had my appearance with me for 66 years, I have benefited and enjoyed it a lot, and now I have to undergo an operation that is disfiguring, even though today’s prosthetics are beautiful.”
It will take ‘some time’ before she gets it. “First I have my nose removed, then the wound has to heal for a month, then you get a temporary prosthesis, with a choice of two positions, and then it will take another five months before the real prosthesis can be put on, at least if I does not have to be irradiated first.”
Sinterklaas news
Dieuwertje Blok has been active on radio and TV for more than 40 years, including since he started in 2001 at the Sinterklaas news. She says she will probably never do TV work again, at most radio. Also the Sinterklaas news would then stop for her. The newspaper counters that it would be good for children to see her.
“You give me an idea. I haven’t thought about it that way at all. I thought: television is over now, but of course that doesn’t have to be the case if that prosthesis becomes beautiful. (…) I must have more difficulty accepting that myself. There are still steps to be taken in acceptance, haha. Because I talk about it so coolly now, because it feels that way now, but it is still not completely real.” NTR has already said that she can ‘of course’ come back.
“I just hope that people don’t run away from me screaming, that people get used to it,” she says, regardless of her work. “I’m certainly not going to confront them with a hole in my face, but I hope that people will continue to approach me normally. I don’t want to be seen as pathetic. Because I don’t feel sad either. It sucks what’s happening, absolutely, but now get on with life.”
