Hi, I’m Yorin De Smet, founder of RevOnc.My story started on a tennis court at age 6. Years of tournaments ended when a wrist and knee injury forced me to stop competing. It taught me a brutal lesson: if your body breaks down, you can forget everything else. That’s why I chose physiotherapy, to understand recovery, rebuild properly, and keep myself healthy for the long life I’m planning to live (fast forward: it’s going well).

Before I started at UGent, I heard the familiar lines: “You won’t be able to do this,” “That’s not realistic,” “That’s too hard for you.” I didn’t debate it. I made a decision and went all in, 100% committed. Last year I graduated with great distinction, no re-exams.Nice, right? But during my third bachelor year, I realised I didn’t want to spend my career only treating people one by one. If we know what works, why isn’t recovery supported with a structured follow-up? And then it became personal.

Liv, the mother of one of my best friends, described her hospital trajectory in one sentence: “Yorin, I fell into a black hole. No support, only complications.” That stuck with me (still does).In 2024, I turned her pain into RevOnc and shaped the idea with the Expedition Do accelerator program. Many people declared me crazy, a physio building a mobile app (at the time it sounded like the beginning of a joke).

By the end of 2024 we were selected for Comon, built our first app version, and tested it in a hospital setting. In summer 2025, with Zorglab, we ran a pilot and recruited 120 cancer patients in under three weeks (yes, also surprised). We recently completed that pilot and secured €50K VLAIO funding.

Cancer is the starting point, but the goal is bigger: I’m building toward the “AI healthbuddy” that fills the gap during and after care, for cancer and beyond, wherever patients go home with questions. That when Liv leaves the hospital, she’s not left behind, but supported to rebuild strength, confidence, and actually return to her life.