Snooker Dutch community comes together to help kids who are fighting cancer

A few days ago, the news that Annet Van Riel and Jan Verhaas are organising on 18th of March a tournament and  very special auction to raise money for children that are fighting cancer, came to my attention.

So, I decided to share it with you my dears because I know that many of you would be interested in this subject and would love to give a helping hand.

Me and Annet go a long way, as I like to say, a few years back she being so kind as to grant me an interview. Back then she was the Chairman of the Dutch Snooker Federation.

Now, he is still involved in snooker and runs the ever-up-to-date snookerblog.eu with all the latest snooker news from the Netherlands, but also your regular snooker news about professional snooker.

The idea of putting together a charity tournament is not new, both Annet and Jan being involved with this sort of events in the past, but now the drive is a bit more different, because it carries a lot of emotional baggage.


The 3-years old Bjorn, is the son of their Dutch fellow referee Keesjan Coenraad and the sweet soul is fighting kidney cancer in the hospital for several weeks now.

This is one of the main reasons why another charity tournament was started as well as a very special auction to take place during it.

The tournament is open to anyone who wants to play snooker and help children who are fighting this terrible disease, the entry fee being 20 euros.

But these two didn't stop here, a special page being made available for those who are not from the Netherlands or don't want/ or have the time to take part in the tournament but still want to donate money for this cause.

The Dutch athlete Daphne Schippers visiting the children hospital

All the money collected from the entry fees, the auction and the JustGiving.com page will go into Kika's account - a Dutch organisation that raises funds for cancer research and special investigation to discover more than one way of treating children with different types of cancer and aiming to get a 95% cure rate.

Annet van Riel said: "It's heart-breaking to see a friend and his family suffer like this. As a mother, myself I feel it is your worst nightmare to see your child battle for his life.

For the family Coenraad this nightmare became real. If we can just put a little smile on their faces, it's worth it!"

Some cool snooker memorabilia

The tournament will be held in Leiden, the Netherlands on 18th of March (you can find more information here) and will benefit by the auction of some very special snooker items (t-shirts, snooker balls) that are signed by the snooker's greatest players and legends.

The event is meant as a way of raising more awareness regarding this terrible disease called cancer, but also as way of showing a genuine support to the families that are struggling with a kid who is fighting cancer.

The page that receives donations from all corners of the world can be visited here. Don't worry if you can't donate a lot of money, every cent counts!

Jan Verhaas

I know that I don't normally do this and I have always tried to keep this blog as objective as I could, but I believe that this is a matter that needs to be addressed and if you can help, why not do it?

We hear a lot about this disease but somehow, we think that it could never happen to us or to someone close. The truth is that ... we don't really know. So, it's important to show our support anyway we can.

Annet and Jan are doing their best in this case so if you want and you can, please be sure to join in.