His name is Mateo and he is only two months old. He suffers from a type of leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. His only older brother, who is three years old, is not compatible. A group of friends wanted to help this Madrid child and began to spread his case on social networks. The success has been enormous and has reached the US or Colombia. So far, a compatible donor has not been found, but thousands of people have been encouraged to show solidarity and donate.
Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero wanted to approach this solidarity campaign to help Mateo in order to also look for potential donors in Lanzarote. Luis Asenjo, one of the promoters of this initiative, explained that this dissemination on social networks has to become "a possibility for Mateo". [His family has set up a website,->http://medulaparamateo.com/] to which athletes, actors and celebrities have responded, who have also participated in this initiative through Twitter with the hashtag #MedulaParaMateo and through Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/medulaparamateo
"We are trying to get the great mass to come and donate so that there are more possibilities. And not only for Mateo, but for all those who need bone marrow," said Asenjo, who was very happy with the expectation for this campaign, which has been answered by athletes such as Pau Gasol or Rafa Nadal. "Actors, athletes, everyone has posted comments. The Atlético de Madrid bench was taking a photo in their dressing room and this is amazing," he said.
And, it is "amazing", because in just one day the "a bone marrow for Mateo" initiative achieved 20 million impacts on Twitter. "It is a very large impact, many people are collaborating. Donate bone marrow because you will donate life," encouraged Asenjo.
Faced with a "very sad" issue, it is also "very hopeful" that citizens have wanted to help spread Mateo's story. "Yesterday (for this Tuesday) the president of the Carreras Foundation contacted us. He told us to try to send another message, because we had saturated the center with donations", explained Asenjo. For this reason, many people are going to territorial centers to be able to donate.
This campaign is also coming in very well for the Carreras Foundation, which "is getting a very important database". "If this campaign continues like this, they could exceed by 10,000 the number of donations they get in a year. It is a global network, because data is shared and it doesn't matter if it is here or in the US, in Colombia or in Mexico," he explained.
Mateo's family and the friends who are helping him with this campaign ask citizens to "go out and donate" because that is what "Mateo needs". Being so small, they don't know how his disease will evolve. "We have a few months for sure and we will try to speed up the process. We are confident that he can be maintained until we find a donor, which is the solution," said Asenjo.
