Luka

In early 2011, Luka Hemelaere passed away of a brain tumour at the age of sixteen, after courageously and patiently living with his disease for four years.


After his death, Ms Van Caeneghem set up the Lux Luka Foundation to provide financial support for the scientific battle against brain tumours in children.


In particular, the Foundation wholeheartedly funds a Ghent University Hospital study focussing on assessing the effect of a treatment while it is being carried out and the early detection of relapse in children diagnosed with brain tumours by means of an isotope marker.

How much strength must a mother possess in order to succeed in converting such a tragic event as the death of her son into something meaningful!


Although the Foundation may still be in its early days, over these past few years it has already managed to make several substantial donations to Ghent University Hospital’s Neuro-Oncology Research Team and it has donated an EEG scanner to Split University Children's Hospital.


“The positive responses to this initiative, which reach us from all walks of society, are truly heartwarming,” says Ms Van Caeneghem.


Grieving process

Ms Van Caeneghem is metaphorically planting her love for her son in the Lux Luka Foundation. Such metaphorical love was expressed more eloquently by Pablo Neruda, who described love in this metaphorical sentence:  “I want to do to you what the spring does to the cherry trees!”


“Even though Luka is no longer physically with us, he lives on in our minds and continues to be part of our world through the Foundation.”

What’s more, Luka’s fellow students stood by him during his long struggle and managed to channel positively their deep involvement, their attention and cherishing of him, through their commitment to a wide range of activities and in different organisations which they set up and still continue to set up.


These young people embody hope and epitomize the conviction that life is meaningful, even after the death of a loved one.


Through the Foundation’s work, Ms Van Caeneghem remains in close contact with Ghent University Hospital’s Neuro-Oncology Research Group, and so the Foundation stays up to date on the scientific progress in the field of paediatric oncology.

A sincere thank you to all of Luka’s friends:


Violette, Edouard, Daan, Stijn, Marie, Pauline, Anouk, Nina-Marie, Ellen, Virginie, Elodie,

Elisa, Isalien, Ellen, Guillaume, Philippe, Laurent, Benjamin, Louise, Suzanne, Alicia,

Hélène, Alice, Arthur, Matthias, Sebastien, Elien, Pierre, Clara, Eva, Ruth, Hannah,

Michèle, Elisabeth, Hannelore, Helena, Hendrik, Charles, Hélène, Philippe, Axelle,

Olivia, Danitsa, Michiel, Delphine, Laurence, Caroline, Alexander, Margeaux,

Emmanuel, Piet, Astrid, Amelie, Rémy, Marie-Hélène, Thomas, Louis, Yurith, Yerien,

Yooshi, Yeenha, Charles, Anne-Laure, Alexander, Laurent, Herlinde, David, Emma,

Kim, Louis, Suzanne, Josephine, Huy, Camille, Levi, Astrid, Laura, Gloria, Nathalie-Joy,

Charlotte, Laura, Emile, Ernestine, Vincent, Marie, Benoît, ...