Esther is active for the European lobular patient community, with focus on The Dutch and Flemish population. Her mother, her sister and herself have been (delayed) diagnosed with lobular breast cancer which she herself describes as “apparently sheer bad luck as no (known) genetics were involved”. It took more than two years of several medical examinations before Esther finally got diagnosed with ilc.

Given the high number of new ILC diagnosis each year as well as a large recurrency population, it came somewhat as a shock to her that lobular breast cancer has been so understudied worldwide which strongly motivated her to become an advocate.

She encourages breast cancer patients to fully understand their particular cancer pathology and is concerned about patients well-being around diagnosis and during and after treatments. Her aim is to contribute to improvements in scientific research to enable better diagnosis, treatment and follow up for lobular cancer patients.