Six athletes from Río Negro participate in the 14th edition of the Argentine and Latin American Transplant Games taking place in San Juan. These are Gabriela Borraro (Bariloche), Sergio Ziaurris (Villa Regina), Miqueas Pérez (Cipolletti), Alejandro Germanos and Javier Monti (General Roca) and Daniel Cuenca (Río Colorado) who compete in disciplines such as athletics, swimming, tennis, badminton and cycling.
“One lives thanks to the other. You learn that one is there because there is another” is almost the motto of Gabriela, 58 years old, who was the first person with neuroendocrine cancer to have a liver transplant.
In 2012, the pathology was detected, which was already advanced, and the doctors gave him weeks, at most months, to live. However, the specialists noticed that Gabriela’s recovery was good and in 2014, they requested an exception from Incucai to authorize a liver transplant since, until now, they only performed it in cases of cirrhosis and hepatitis B. It was completed on the 3rd January 2015.
During the six days she was hospitalized, Gabriela tried to find out who her donor had been. He learned that it was a 46-year-old woman from Santa Fe. He always felt like thanking his parents “for such an act of love.”
Today, Gabriela leads the Nahuel Rosa Foundation, an organization that accompanies women survivors of breast cancer through rowing. “Everything I experienced awakened in me the need to put together a project like Nahuel Rosa. You learn to give for everything you received. It is an opportunity of life. And this event allows us to spread the need for organ donation and bear witness that, thanks to donors, we can achieve a full life. It is a way to honor those who gave us this opportunity. Their organs do not go to heaven, they stay here and save lives,” said this woman who today competes in athletics and badminton.
They participate in the event in San Juan around 250 transplants not only from Argentina but from Uruguay, Chile and Brazil. It arose from the creation of the Association of Transplanted Athletes of Argentina and is held every two years, so that they do not coincide with the World Games for Transplanted Athletes.
«It is a way of meeting and bearing witness that Thanks to our donors we have the life we have and we live it fully, honoring them. Each one does it based on what they know, which is sport. It is an example of quality of life and normal life,” said Gabriela.
The Games not only represent a celebration of life for transplant recipients, but also highlight the importance of organ donation. They were born in Mar del Plata in 2005 with the idea of a more federal competition and adding all the provinces of the country.
In this edition of the games, athletes compete in field and track athletics, swimming, five kilometer marathon, tennis, badminton, petanque (bocce ball), basketball, volleyball, newocom, shuffleboard and cycling.
Sergio was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in General Roca in 2009, by chance due to appendicitis.
At the Ramos Mejía hospital in Buenos Aires they told him that 90% of his bones were damaged by leukemia. In three months of chemotherapy, the disease subsided 100% and he was ready to be transplanted to prevent the return of the leukemia. This is how he underwent a bone marrow transplant at the La Plata hospital, in Buenos Aires, and his brother turned out to be his donor.
Today, in San Juan he competes in javelin throwing, discus, softball, table tennis and badminton. Like Gabriela, he considered that the Games are a space to thank and give strength to those who go through similar processes. “It is a way to pay respect and gratitude to my family, friends, nurses and doctors who accompany me. It is also a message of encouragement for those who are waiting for a transplant or have already received one. We know it is a difficult path, but it is worth the fight.”, he highlighted.
Each province brought its transplanted athletes as representatives, but in some cases, they also presented donors, such as the case of a couple in which the husband donated a kidney to the woman. Each discipline is divided into categories.
«It is about honoring our donors, giving testimonies of a full life, but also spreading the need for donation, knowing that There are 10 thousand people waiting for an organ«, Gabriela concluded.
