KickCancer Foundation

KickCancer is the story of a Belgian happily blended family living with humour, love and small daily joys until the frightening day when they are told one of their children, has cancer. A tumour located in the foot called rhabdomyosarcoma – an indigestible name quickly changed into “foot cancer”.

It is the story of a family, which faces the first round of treatments with lousy jokes because it is sometimes best just to laugh and to keep one’s chin up. Of a family, which, after a whole year of chemotherapy, reaches the Holy Grail of complete remission and is headed back to normal life, ready to leave behind, but not to forget, its past misfortune.

But it is also the story of a family, which encounters cancer again, with nasty relapses. Motivated to do more, they embark on an in-depth research effort, learning that all the reassuring innovations one hears about cancer in the news… are for adults only and do not benefit the children with cancer. And thus, they come to the conclusion that they have to act.

Hence the creation of KickCancer!

Since its creation, KickCancer grew and was joined by several other families.

KickCancer likes to think of themselves as independent, collaborative, strategic - and unapologetically European. Naturally, that calls for a few clarifications...

1- Independent- We have no strings attached: KickCancer operates free from any institutional allegiance

to research centres. When it comes to selecting research projects, we rely on an independent scientific process to ensure we fund only the most promising ones. No favourites. No shortcuts. Just science.

2- Collaborative - We don’t believe in silos. That’s why we team up with everyone who can help improve outcomes for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer: hospitals, research labs, pharmaceutical companies, other NGOs (whether they focus on research like us or support families during treatment). And yes, even politics and public institutions—we’re not afraid of the word “advocacy”.

3- Strategic - Since we work with everyone, we have a clear view of the bigger picture—and the bottlenecks. Our approach isn’t just to put patches on a broken system; we want to understand and address the structural barriers that slow down access to better treatments. That includes legal, regulatory, cultural or organisational hurdles. We’re in this for the long run—even if the structural changes we fight for might one day make us obsolete. That would be our idea of a happy ending.

4- European - When you work in rare and ultra-rare diseases like paediatric cancers, we just need Europe (and sometimes the whole world) to reach a sufficient scale. That’s why research must go cross-border to gather enough patients and expertise—whether for clinical trials or studies on human samples. KickCancer is one of the very few Belgian NGOs that funds research beyond national borders—and the only one doing so specifically in paediatric oncology.

To achieve our mission, we have organised our activities around four pillars:

1- Financing research: If we want to improve treatments and outcomes for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer, there aren’t a thousand ways to get there—we have to fund research. That means finding generous donors, amazing supporters, and rockstar volunteers to keep the engine running.

2- Advocating a better legal and cultural framework: We have our own little Belgian team working to push for change at the national level. And at the European level, we collaborate with—and fund—Childhood Cancer International–Europe. Their EU team is even based in our office, which is conveniently located just a stone’s throw from the EU institutions.

3- Empowering patients: Being seriously ill often feels like you’re losing control over your life. We create tools and organise trainings to support patients and their families during treatment—helping them regain a sense of control. It’s our way of reminding them they’re not alone.

4- Raising awareness: When we say, “Curing cancer is making progress... except for children”, people usually stop in their tracks. Most have never fathomed this sobering truth— which is why we make sure to say it clearly and often. The more people know, the more they care... and the more they donate or get involved in our advocacy work.