Begoña
"I want my girl, my dream, to grow up fit and healthy". This is precisely my plan. I always had one dream; to have a daughter. My dream came true on the 7th of November 2009. Now I have two dreams; that no child has to go through the hell that my daughter has had to go through due to serious illness and that leukaemia becomes a completely curable disease.
The first dream is a utopian idea but the second, thanks to charities like this one and the solidarity of anonymous donors, will one day become a reality.
My name is Yolanda and I am the mother of Begoña, a little girl that today, the 7th November, is celebrating her second birthday. She has also now spent just over 4 months fighting like a gladiator against acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, without losing her smile for one single day. Her energy is contagious and affects everyone that sees her and meets her. She has always been the type of girl that you fall in love with when you meet her, with her big black eyes and her endless smile. She has a gift that makes her so strong, that I don't really know how to explain it. When she was born she was the one who gave me strength in the first uncertain days and now she continues to do so through this difficult situation. Her gift is to be happy and calm through whatever circumstance. For me she is vital and fundamental; she is my strength and my fight at the same time.
Everything started with a fever, several trips to A&E, and a limp... until the doctor sent us for analysis. The results showed a neutropenia, and after another analysis we were admitted to the hospital. Further tests were carried out on her bone marrow which revealed the worst news we had received as first time parents. Our girl, our dream, had a serious disease and to overcome it she would have to undergo aggressive, long, and hard chemotherapy treatment with long periods in hospital.
Four long months have gone by with one month spent in critical isolation, two months spent constantly in the hospital and another month in which the maintenance phase was started. Now we are not in the hospital all the time but there are still plenty of visits and treatments sessions every week. Fortunately, it has not been necessary to undergo a transplant because she has a good prognosis and she didn't waste any time by going into remission on the 14th day. Despite that, they have done numerous analyses, transfused litres of serum, antibiotics, chemo, visits to intensive care to apply the intrathecal, bone marrow punctures, loss of hair, horrible medicine applied through her mouth, injections in her bum...a whole range of unimaginable things for parents to endure, but she took everything in her stride like the champion she is. She hasn't vomited once, she only stopped smiling when they gave her an injection but she soon forgot about it. When it was necessary to check her temperature she put her arm up like an adult and her capacity to adapt was infinite. When she had to go down to intensive care, she always went with Pepe and Titis, her teddy bears, and when she left the hospital she always had her Bopa backpack on.
At home she never stops dancing to Britney or Katy Perry and her cousins are always taking photos of their fun.
I have made a special nursery for her where she spends much of her time painting.
Every now and then we escape to the countryside to go walking because she loves it. We try to celebrate with all the family as much as possible too.
My daughter has given me the most important lesson of my life: that in the face of every problem you have to have a smile and approach it with good humour. With that you'll go a long way, and you have to have an innocence to be able to convert a hospital room into a house where you constantly look into the eyes of the person you love the most. This world is new to me but it is full of stories of strength; full of anonymous little heroes fighting for their lives with no more than their innocence and bravery to help them; full of people who help you to feel better on such a bitter journey by simply talking with you and convincing you that with determination, everything will be ok and in the end it will all just be a bad memory. I hope that it will be a memory that Begoña won't even remember.
When my plan is realized and when my little girl has grown up fit and healthy, I will tell her that the people like her who have fought so hard from such a young age, are able to achieve anything they want in life, having already won once.
I don't want to let the opportunity pass to wish a very happy birthday to my beautiful dream. I love you, my adorable girl!"
Yolanda
If you want more information about the donation of bone marrow to help people like Begoña (and many other patients) to have the opportunity of a cure, click HERE. Remember that the donation of bone marrow is altruistic, anonymous, and universal. If you register as a bone marrow donor, you could be making a donation to a person from anywhere in the world. If you want more information, write to donants@fcarreras.es or call us on our free phone number (in Spain) 900 32 33 34.
You could also become a member of the José Carreras Foundation. With a little amount you could help us to continue our research.
If you want to get a "solidarity to the core" T-shirt to help patients like Begoña, click HERE.
