Dear chromosome 6 families and friends,

After a three-month break, I am back home, taking up regular life at work. So, it is time to give you all an update, an evaluation, and a big thank you for your interest, support, and donations.

Many of you followed the blogs that were posted by my team on walkforchromosome6.blogspot.com. The team wrote summaries of my adventures, and even posted short videos made from the photographs that I shared with them. I hope you enjoyed these. I want to thank Aafke, who wrote the Blogspot and Facebook updates, sent out messages on Twitter almost daily, and kept track of the amount of money raised. Aafke also arranged the Dutch newspaper and radio interviews. Suzanne made the movies, Timme made the cartoon and logo, and Pauline kept you informed via the C6 Facebook page. A big thank you to all of them!

Of course, I am very disappointed that I could not complete the promised 1200 km, and that I was not able to reach Santiago de Compostela due to a nasty and very painful case of tendinitis in my ankle. I tried everything to get rid of the pain, including a halfway rest of three weeks, cooling, massage, strong anti-inflammatory medication, and painkillers. I even tried wearing other shoes. On my last day of walking, it took me 7 hours to walk 18 km. Every step hurt. At that point, I decided that I definitely could not continue. It was a very difficult decision, but I knew that I could always come back and do the remaining 400 km in a three-week holiday.