Emma was flown with her family by André Rieu for a guest appearance in Malta. Singing the song Voilà by French singer Barbara Pravi, she knows how to make everyone emotional. In July, she could sing the song again at the Vrijthof in Maastricht, and the video went viral. She knows exactly what she wants: “To become world famous, a star. Maybe it’s very cliche, but this is really my childhood dream,” she explained to RTL News.
But besides fame, there’s something else she wants just as much: to be healthy. Emma suffers from a rare chronic disease, gastroparesis, also called gastroparesis. Her stomach can barely handle or digest food. Therefore, she receives liquid food through a stomach tube for 22 hours a day.
The disease has a major impact on Emma’s life. Wherever you go, you carry two pumps in a large bag. She also relates to pumps at night, she says in an interview with RTL News.
When she eats dinner with her family, Emma sits down with a mashed snack and a piece of rice cake. That’s all her body can handle.
Even as a little girl, she would carry pumps to school. At that time they were still on the walker because they were too heavy for Emma. Emma expresses what she has felt since she was young: “I’m not like the rest.” This became especially evident after an incident at school. She was hanging on a climbing frame with a friend when they fell and the probe came loose. She was quickly taken to the hospital to have her feeding tube replaced.
Despite this struggle, the singer achieved great success. She has been so successful that she may even be able to finish her final year of school, VMBO 4, at the Global School. “I will then take online lessons. Then I can study on tour and do assignments and tests at the hotel. Or on the plane or on the bus.”
She feels free on stage, and singing makes her life much more beautiful. But the struggle did not disappear.
source: RTL News
