Unstoppable Testimonies

Hello! I am Pablo, a passionate football fan who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at the age of 12.

On 12 July 2018, after that diagnosis, my life changed completely. I went from playing football to being hooked up to a pump 24 hours a day, taking a lot of drugs, getting injections and tests and, above all, being accompanied by the side effects of the chemotherapy treatment.

I started with 2 cycles of chemotherapy. The first cycle went very well, leaving the disease at 1%, while the second cycle did not have the expected effect, the disease went up to 11%, I had to endure a more intensive rescue cycle. The good thing is that we managed to reduce the disease to 0%, which means that I was ready for the transplant.

Despite having 3 siblings, none of them are compatible with me, but thanks to the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO) of the Josep Carreras Foundation, on 12 February 2019 I received a stem cell transplant from a unit of umbilical cord blood located in their donor bank.

I was really looking forward to getting out of hospital to put my gloves back on and return to my goalkeeper position, and so it happened. After the transplant I got down to work, I was training hard to get fit quickly and to be able to be with my team mates.

It’s been 4 years now and, in this last year, I decided to launch myself into a documentary called #yosoypablodocumental where I not only explain the experience of having this disease, but it also reflects the commitment to bone marrow donation and to donate all the proceeds to research into childhood cancer.

If you are between 18 and 40 years old, you are healthy and you want to be part of this big family of #unstoppables, don’t hesitate and become a bone marrow donor and to the mums who are about to have a baby, remember that the stem cells from that cord can save a life, you saved mine and I will always thank you, even if I don’t know who you are, thank you for this new life.

Pablo