Malvinas, reflection and solidarity: emotional day of blood donation

In an unprecedented meeting, a blood collection was carried out with the contribution of 153 voluntary donors to commemorate the 40 years of Malvinas.

The initiative promoted by the ex-combatant and president of the Forget Me Not Foundation, Julio Aro, was attended by the former British colonel Geoffrey Cardozo.

During the day that took place at the Islas Malvinas Sports Center Stadium, Cardozo went to every corner to greet all the participants in the solidarity action, he spoke kindly in Spanish with those who came to greet him and answered the concerns of the press leaving a strong message of peace.

In addition, the English soldier gave a talk to the attendees together with Julio Aro in which they recalled how the friendship that unites them was born through the humanitarian project (for which both are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize) that allowed the identification of fallen Argentine heroes in Malvinas who were buried as unknown soldiers in the Darwin Cemetery.

In that context, Geoffrey Cardozo recalled a very special anecdote linked to the Malvinas. “During the war, there was an English hospital ship called Uganda that had a lot of British wounded and there were also Argentines. There was a lack of blood for these men because what there was was not enough. Two or three days later, the Argentine hospital ship Bahía Paraíso appeared, approached the English ship and gave all its blood from one ship to another, ”he narrated.

And in that sense, he reflected: “Is it incredible? It is not normal”. With the motto “To save lives, all arms are needed”, the collection carried out last Tuesday – which began at 8 a.m. and lasted until after noon – had an incessant movement of donors who approached in advance and in a spontaneous to be part of a unique solidarity day. This initiative took place within the framework of the “40×40” campaign of the Hemotherapy Institute of the Province of Buenos Aires “Dra. Nora Etchenique”, which consists of 40 blood collections in commemoration of the 40 years of the Malvinas War.

The Regional Centers of Mar del Plata, February 3 and La Plata participated, the executive director of the Institute of Hemotherapy “Dr. Nora Etchenique”, Dr. Laura González; her associate director, Dr. Yanina Spinelli and the director of the Regional Center of Mar del Plata, Verónica Coppolillo. Also part of the activity were Mayor Guillermo Montenegro; the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese, Darío Rubén Quintana; Commissioner Juan Manuel Lara; the director of the Sanitary Region VIII, Dr. Gastón Vargas; the Drs. Cecilia Cazorla and Evelyn Vergara; the president of EMDER, Andrés Macció, and the general director of Federated Sports, Ricardo Liceaga Viñas.

The event was made possible thanks to the participation of organizations and institutions such as the Honorable Deliberative Council, the Diocese of Mar del Plata, the CGT, Palestra NGO, EMDER, the Colegio Atlántico del Sur, the TOAS Concertación Group, the NGO Travesía por Mogotes, the Union of Lifeguards, the Association of Physical Education Professionals, the Mar del Plata Volleyball Association, the general director of Infrastructure, Architect Martín Rosales; the general sports director, Prof. Alejandra Urquía; Colonel Leandro Jofre Foncueva, Chief of the 601 Anti-Aircraft Defense Artillery Group; the Department of Ecological Prevention and Hazardous Substances of Mar del Plata and athletes Nora Vega, Christian Ledesma, Christian Rosso and Juan Esteban Curuchet.

In addition, the companies Café Cabrales, La Fonte D’Oro, Dopo Pizzeria Napoletana, Romairone Institute, Hodola Technology in events and Radio Brisas collaborated with the activity.