A dessert state of mind

Before you start reading, just promise me that you will read it until the very end before closing this page...Probably you guys have noticed a significant dip in blogposts in the past few months and back in January I had a good excuse with the pre-opening of Oblix taking up a lot of time until the actual opening in the beginning of May. And It's true I have to say, up until now I only managed to put five stories on the road to hell and sweetness but it has it's reasons.

I wasn't planning on mentioning this on the blog but in July disaster stroke, 3 months after the opening of Oblix I was diagnosed with a malignant and fast growing medulloblastoma in my brain and had to be hospitalised straight away. A week later I already had an operation to extract the cancerous tumour. The six hour operation was successful and the tumour was removed completely. Following would be therapy starting 6weeks after the operation, but what followed instead was a battle with the national insurance in the UK and Belgium to get my radiotherapy done in my hometown, close to my family. Eventually a week to late, We managed to get the green light and on 30 September I started therapy in Belgium. Now I'm practically halfway and therapy has been hard. Loads of vomiting, nausea, weakness, burned inside of my throat, burned back and loosing my hair.



In a few weeks therapy will end and in January life will hopefully go back to normal, but I can't go back to normal life without trying to bring brain cancer research closer to the people, therefore I decided to organise from scratch a pastry benefit called "A dessert state of mind" to collect money for brain tumour research. An evening where we try to lift brain cancer research and awareness out of its shadows and in to the spotlight. An evening where 8 top pastry chefs create a dessert tasting menu for the guests, a auction to raise money, special guests, gift bags, loads of emotion and true stories...the whole lot!

As I said, I never did this before, I'm starting this from scratch so therefore I'm posting this on the road to hell and sweetness hoping to find people who can help me or contribute to this future event in anyway whatsoever. Since I have nothing apart from an idea, I can use anybody's knowledge. From graphic designers for a logo and pastry chefs with great ideas to potential sponsers or organisers who have the knowledge of building up an event like this from zero. Somebody with connections in media or maybe just people with ideas or who know somebody that can help. Anything or anybody is welcome, so please spread the word, put this post on you're Facebook page or Tweet it, e-mail it, google+ it, put it on you're LinkedIn,...or any other social media that I have forgot. Do it once, do it twice, three times,...cause it's for the greater good.

I'm truly hoping that the combination of this blogpost and your creativity and willingness to make this idea a successful event can lead to the 1st annual "A dessert state of mind" in London on the 6th of August. Anybody can contact me through the blog, on twitter (@JurgenWillems14), through mail (jurgen.willems@live.com) or just look me up on facebook. hope to get a lot of response from you guys!