Where there's a will there's a way, a maxim confirmed admirably by Dutch truck driver Jan Edelschaap, who lost his leg due to illness, but not the will to go back behind the wheel. For five years he wasn’t able to drive, but this month he went back to work. H. B. Sluimers Transport offered him the chance to reintegrate, and even had a truck converted specially for him.
Jan started as a truck driver at eighteen, and his work has always been his passion. In December 2007 disaster arrived in the form of a severe illness. "It turned to be a malignant tumor,” he says. Chemotherapy proved ineffective, and the first amputation took place on 26 May. He lost his job as a result, but Jan refused to give up. “To me, driving a truck is everything.” Still, it took a few years before he found a company that believed in him.
After getting his license back he faced an arduous journey, visiting company after company without result. He began to lose hope of ever finding a new job. "For my family it wasn’t easy. I wanted to work, but I just couldn’t find any.” Ultimately a post on facebook led to Jan coming into contact with H. B. Sluimers Transport. Henk Sluimers’ daughter knew Jan, as she was the taxi driver taking him to the hospital for several treatments.
“We could tell how badly he wanted his old job back,” says Henk. “We decided to let him do it.” The transport company primarily goes to the United Kingdom for the supply of cruise ships. Henk had a truck converted at Volvo. "A gas and brake pedal was placed to the left of the switch column. These can be folded so that others can use the vehicle if necessary.”
Jan has expressed his relief on several occasions: “If people keep telling you that you won’t get there, you start to believe them. Besides beating the illness, I think achieving this just goes to show that you can accomplish anything if you keep up the faith. I’m just very glad and grateful to get back to work.”