Amputees lifestyle | Marleen Verbeek wearing 3D Firm U UNYQ Cover design in olive
Marleen Verbeek (UNYQer Interview)
Marleen is a mom of two children who loves to rediscover herself. In fact, she likes languages, traveling, nature, walks and decorating her house.
Her motto is «rediscover yourself», so after amputation she learned how to snowboard and she’s now launching a tequila brand with her boyfriend.
You can read her full interview and leave her a comment below!
If you want to share your story with us send an email to marketing@unyq.com.
Each of us has a personal life story that makes us unique, what is yours? How do you feel unique?
Every person in the world is unique. But sometimes we are ashamed to be ourselves. I have found that if you dare to show your vulnerability, life thanks you.
When I was 13 years old I had meningitis. At that time half of both my feet were amputated. I was in the hospital for 8 months and came out on crutches. But after many years of pain in my left leg I decided to have it amputated in 2016, and it was a very good decision.
How do you handle self-acceptance? What is your biggest inspiration in life?
Going through meningitis and being in pain for many years was very difficult, but more so was accepting my body with many scars.
Now i’m on a different mood, and since I show who I am with the body I have, only good things have happened to me. For example, after acting in a Mercedes car ad, I noticed that people are more open to me and that brought me deeper friendships.
One of my biggest inspirations is Bibian Mentel. She was an incredibly positive person that had cancer I think 11 times and never gave up, always looking at the positive and not the negative side. Indeed she won a lot of awards for snowboarding, and it was because of her that I learned to snowboard.
One of my challenges after my amputation was to be able to go down a blue run with my children. I succeeded and that has given me a lot of satisfaction.
"If I had to give advice to other amputees that would be: Be you with everything you have, and if not, rediscover yourself".
What does wearing UNYQ Covers mean to you?
Bibian Mentel introduced me to UNYQ Covers.
After all, I don’t want to hide my prosthesis but I don’t want to go with a metal stick either so what I most appreciate about them are the colours and the designs.
So with the UNYQ cover it looks great and I love when people look at me and don’t quite know what they see. A while ago I would have been embarrassed but now I laugh because I know that for them it’s probably the first time they see someone with a prosthesis.
(Check out Marleen’s UNYQ Cover here)
Marleen Verbeek’s opinion about UNYQ Covers
Would you like to share your story with us?
We believe in diversity, personal empowerment and inspiring life stories. What’s yours? We’ll share it with the world.
If you have a UNYQ Cover and want to motivate and inspire people please send us an email to iam@unyq.com and we’ll be back to you!
"Rediscover yourself in a boat, in the countryside or in a summer evening".
