Burgos (Spain), Jan 9 (EFE).- The Spaniard Francisco del Amo made his 500th blood donation today, a record in Europe, and a gesture with which, “for little more than the bite of a mosquito”, he helps , “if not to save, then to improve the health of a patient.”
This is what the resident of the city of Burgos (northern Spain) told the assembled media minutes before proceeding with donation number 500.
Francisco del Amo, who is also president of the Brotherhood of Blood Donors of Burgos and responsible for the regional federation of Castilla y León, has been donating blood, platelets and plasma for 46 years, although in the last ten he has only been able to donate platelets. and plasma upon medical recommendation.
It all started in 1977, when his mother, a regular donor, “took him by the ear” to donate with her in the city of Socuéllamos (Ciudad Real, central Spain), his hometown, and there it happened. He realized that “it wasn’t that big of a deal,” and continued donating year after year.
Del Amo has complied with the maximum allowed: four annual donations for men (three for women) and periodic donations of plasma or platelets (every 15 days), hence he has managed to reach that amount of 500, which he only shares with one man from Texas (United States), although there “you pay to donate,” he said.
The same thing happens in three European countries, while in Spain the donation is an altruistic, supportive act, for which nothing is paid. Del Amo assured, as president of the brotherhood, that “they will continue fighting” to keep it that way, since it is “the logical thing to do.”
It is precisely this spirit of solidarity that moves Del Amo, who assured that donating gives him “great satisfaction.”
Although “no one gets used to the puncture” of the needle to proceed with the extraction, he values the help that a transfusion can provide to hospitalized people, who require surgery, to those who have suffered an accident or to cancer patients, for example. example.
“There are people who have confessed to me that, with a blood transfusion, they notice how their body changes, from looking exhausted to seeing that they are recovering,” he recalled. So he is willing to continue donating as long as he has the health to do so, because that is his other joy, that he has the strength and good health to continue. EFE
(c) EFE Agency
2024-01-09 18:40:25
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