About Villa Joep!

Neuroblastoma is one of the most aggressive cancers that can affect children. Every year 25 to 30 children in the Netherlands are diagnosed with neuroblastoma. More than half of the cases are high-risk neuroblastoma. 65 to 70 percent of children with the heaviest form do not survive. A bleak and unfair perspective.
The fight against neuroblastoma is an uncertain and long road, for the patients and their families and for the researchers working on a cure. Villa Joep only stops when there is a life-saving therapy against neuroblastoma. That moment is slowly approaching, knowledge about the causes and effective treatment is growing every day.

The promise to Joep

Villa Joep started as a promise to the then four-year-old Joep. Before his death, his parents promised to do everything he could to make a cure for neuroblastoma possible. That 2003 pledge has grown into a professional organization that raises money to accelerate international neuroblastoma research and increase the chance of a cure.


100% of the revenue goes to research

After Joep's death, it quickly became clear to his parents that specific research into neuroblastoma was desperately needed. To date, more than € 10 million has been collected. That money has been used to make major research breakthroughs. Villa Joep has grown into a professional volunteer organization. Our only permanent employee and the necessary secretarial costs are paid by the independent Friends of Villa Joep foundation. This means that all donations go 100% to research. Our goal is to raise € 1 to € 1.5 million per year to continue these important investigations.


Partners of Villa Joep
Villa Joep works on three fronts to accelerate research. Collaboration is the driving force here.
• We connect hundreds of national and international researchers with a focus on neuroblastoma.
• We bring together nearly 50 volunteers in a professional organization.
• And Villa Joep can count on thousands of ambassadors, donors and partners. Every year they organize more than a hundred actions and events in the country to raise funds and thus maintain the acceleration.

In addition, Villa Joep has another important goal. We are here for the families dealing with neuroblastoma. We support by bringing fellow sufferers into contact with each other, by sharing knowledge and standing side by side in battle. We do this, for example, with family days and the Villa Joep 'online community'.