Na heel veel jaren van de meest extreme moves van Ruben Lenten te hebben kunnen genieten, heeft Ruben nu eens onze hulp nodig. We hebben geen idee hoe we zelf dit slechte nieuws moeten brengen dus laten we het maar aan Ruben zelf over en wensen we hem, Nikki, familie en vrienden heel veel sterkte toe de komende maanden:

Dear brothers and sisters from all around the world,

I have some really weird news to share with you. I actually still can’t believe it myself.

I have cancer.

I can’t tell you what it feels like to say that…

For the past couple of months Nikki (my fiancé) and I were prepping for a great adventure together. Our intentions were to hang out in San Francisco, LA and BURNINGMAN to spend some time with old and new friends and get inspired by them and all of our adventures together.

We would never have thought that our adventure would be heading in a whole different direction now.

The past week I didn't feel well. I had a really strange pain on the chest and in my throat. Although I thought it could be from my wisdom tooth that was just pulled out, it didn't feel good and I wanted to see a doctor before we left to the US. So I went to see the doctor at home and she checked my heart, lungs and blood pressure, but everything seemed ok. She thought it might be ‘stress’ and sent me back home instead of investigating more into my symptoms.

Two days later, still not feeling right, we flew out to San Francisco to start our great adventure together.

Unfortunately the pain in my chest and throat increased and I knew something wasn't right. So I went to the St Louise hospital in Gilroy on Saturday the 22nd of August to get things checked out. After doing an X-ray they saw an inflammation in my chest and wanted to follow up with a CT scan.

20 minutes later our world got turned upside down.

‘ Sir we've got some bad news. You've got a mass of about 9x9cm by the heart. You need to see an oncologist as soon as possible since it’s in a very sensitive area.’

After the first shock we immediately contacted my amazing friends and after a few phone calls I was on my way to Stanford Hospital, where they have some of the best doctors and know-how in the world to treat this disease.

They did a PET scan yesterday and by the looks of it, the mass didn’t spread anywhere else in my body, so that’s some really good news! They're thinking it’s a type of lymphoma and that’s a very treatable and curable type of cancer.

Today they will do a biopsy to see what kind of cancer we're dealing with exactly and how to get rid of it!

As always I feel super positive and am 100% sure I’m going to get through this thing! It’s just a little bump in the road and I will be back on the water before you know it, stronger than ever before! It’s a big rollercoaster ride and I'm ready for it!

I really want to focus on my treatment and recovery… very curious to find out what type it is and how aggressive. For me it is essential to cure this from within and go to the core of this disease that has already thought me a lot over the past couple days and will teach me even more about life and myself. I’ll take it as a gift with a difficult task at hand but with a wonderful outcome if we do this right.

It might be a bit quiet from my side for the next few weeks/months, as I will mainly focus on myself. We want you to know that we really appreciate all the nice messages, love, and support, positive and healing energy we’re receiving from everyone directly, indirectly or through the universe! We’re overwhelmed and feel that the universe is on fire and filled with love.

It makes us feel super strong to cure this the best and healthiest way possible.

That’s why we’re going to need your help for the unknown adventure ahead, which can get into the unknown amounts. Great doctors here in the U.S.A. but unfortunately hospital costs and treatment cost can get up to a million easily. My insurance will hopefully cover the treatment I will have to get but besides that a lot more things come my way that will be very expensive.

My lovely friends of the MaiTai community kicked of a very kind fundraiser and I feel very weird about it but am very aware I will need you at this moment in time in order to get back to where I want to be. If you feel like you can support in any way, please help a brother out so that we can ride, fly, meet, hang, party and love life with all of you again as soon as possible.

Here is a link to the page and please know that your support will go a long way: www.youcaring.com/rubenlenten

MASSIVE shout out and EVEN BIGGER HUGS to everyone involved, thanks for caring and helping so much in these difficult times. Much appreciated!

Much much love! 
XX
Ruben & Nikki