Magdaléna Kohutová (Slovakia)

My name is Magdaléna Kohutová and I live in Košice, the second largest city in Slovakia. I work as an IFRS specialist in the finance department of a company that owns a chain of hospitals and outpatient clinics in Slovakia. In my spare time I enjoy jogging, walking and spending time with my family and friends.

A few years ago, I got to know Eliska’s mother, who suffers from a rare vascular disease (this family is a member of CMTC-OVM and has also been to the Netherlands during a members conference). When I saw her pictures, they reminded me of myself when I was little and no doctor could diagnose my condition. We started sharing our knowledge and experience. She informed me about CMTC-OVM and I was really surprised and happy that there is an organization that connects and helps people with rare diseases.

When I had the opportunity to become a patient advocate, I considered it a great opportunity to give people in Slovakia or neighboring countries access to information that could be useful to them, as the diagnosis and treatment of rare vascular disease in our country is unfortunately at a very low level. At the same time, I look forward to getting to know new people and their life stories and to find the right balance in my professional life, which is full of numbers, formulas and excel sheets. I hope to be useful to the organization and if I can help even one person, I will be happy.