Miracle in Gran Canaria: Elías finds life-saving bone marrow donor
After months of waiting, uncertainty, and tireless campaigning, the family of seven-year-old Elías from Gran Canaria has received the news they longed for: a compatible bone marrow donor has been found.
Elías, who is battling leukaemia, urgently needed a transplant, and his case had become a race against time.
Despite awareness campaigns that encouraged hundreds of new registrations in the Canary Islands and across Spain, no suitable genetic match had been found until now.
The announcement was made by his father, Nauzet Méndez, through an emotional message on social media: “I don’t even know how to write this. I’m shaking. Our soul has exploded, with rage, with pain, and with hope, all at once.”
The family’s campaign had focused on increasing registrations in the Spanish Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO), coordinated by the Josep Carreras Foundation, which manages potential donor databases for patients worldwide.
The donor who could now save Elías’s life remains anonymous and may never know the identity of the child he or she is helping. But for Nauzet and his family, this person is nothing short of a hero. He wrote, “That’s what being a donor means: giving a child a future.”
For months, the family lived through anguish and uncertainty, clinging to hope and prayer. Now, with a match confirmed, they finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
This case also highlights the vital importance of bone marrow donation, a life-saving process still surrounded by myths. Contrary to popular belief, 90% of donations do not require surgery but are carried out through a method similar to giving blood, called apheresis, where stem cells are separated and the remaining blood returned to the donor.
Elías’s story goes to show how every donor registration can mean the difference between despair and survival for families around the world.
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