The Winner of the MSIF Nicholson Award for International Caregiver of the Year 2005

Maria Broeckx

Having evaluated all nominations from all over the world, the MSIF Persons with MS Advisory Group have identified the winner of the Nicholson Award for the International Caregiver of the Year 2005. Although a difficult task, they found that the nomination of Maria Broeckx from Belgium stood out from the rest. This is the winning nomination:

Maria was born October 17th, 1937, she married Julien Oeyen and they have one daughter Ria. Maria took care of her husband Julien, who had MS (diagnosed in 1980) and cancer (since 1997). Julien died in 2001.

Maria was married to Julien when he was diagnosed with MS in 1980 after years of incertitude. He had a progressive MS and he had to stop working very soon. They were both members of the MS-Society. As there were not enough possibilities to meet other persons with MS on regular basis, they started with a self-care group in their region. It was a real success. From then on they meet every month.

In the early stage Maria felt the need for a separate meeting with the partners and very soon she started with a self-care group for partners. This was the first dedicated self-care group. It was a real success from the beginning and it is still a success. Within this self-care groups the discussions on needs and demands of children were opened very soon.

Maria did not hesitate to contact a psychologist and shortly after that the first group for children of a parent with MS was born in our MS society. Antwerpen was the first province to have these dedicated meetings for children on a regular basis, thanks to Maria’s efforts.

In 1996 her husband got intestine cancer and in 1997 cancer on the lungs. In 2001 Julien died of his cancer. Maria took care of her husband at home, and even in this very difficult period Maria never stopped with organising the meetings for the different self-help groups.

In 1999 she started a 10 days course to become a MS-counsellor. She became a better helper/ listener for persons with MS and care givers. She is one of the best MS-counsellors of the Belgian MS-Society. She takes always time to listen to many other persons with a very open mind and she stays closely in touch with the social service of the Society.

Maria is a person who is always ready to help other people. She prefers not to walk in the spotlight, but works silently on the background. She is still the chairman of the 3 self-care groups.

Nominations for the Nicholson Award 2005

The judges of the Nicholson Award would like to express their thanks, admiration and support for the Nicholson Award nominees, all of whom will receive an MSIF Certificate acknowledging their nomination. This year in particular the judges found it very difficult to differentiate one single nomination from the very high standard of all those nominated for the award. In recognizing the winner, we also acknowledge the many thousands of caregivers worldwide, for whom there is often little thanks or credit.