"On February 4, 2016, Diabetes was diagnosed with Alba, what I want most in this world, and I decided that I had to move."The phrase is from José Antonio Jiménez, a taxi driver from Sant Joan Despi whose daughter suffers from diabetes.And what if it has moved.
Since then he has not stopped organizing solidarity acts with the aim of raising funds for the Zero Diabetes entity, which seeks healing this disease.It is able to involve everyone, from neighborhood residents and entities of this town of Baix Llobregat to politicians - including the silence, Antoni Poveda - or the very FC Barcelona himself.
Jiménez's first campaign was through a crowdfunding platform.Fond of walking, he promised that if he got more than 3,000 euros, he would do one of the toughest tests in Catalonia, Matagalls - Montserrat."I ended up exhausted, I walked for 22 hours, two friends accompanied me ... but from kilometer four I could no longer," he recalls."But people had donated more than 3,000 euros and, if they had not failed, I could not fail them," he resolved.
The last of the activities organized by this father courage also has to do with walking.This Sunday, January 28, has organized the first family walk for the diabetes of Sant Joan Despí."First we begin to move between friends and family, then we received the help of the City Council and the mayor ... No one told us no, all the doors have opened," he says.They already have more than 500 registered."I don't believe it," he acknowledges.
The initiative has reached the Camp Nou to achieve visibility and dissemination: "Alba is a partner and we invite the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, to come to the walk.""He told us that he could not come for agenda commitments, but invited us to the Palco del Camp Nou."And there they went to witness a Barça match and photograph themselves with an event sign.
The collaboration of the most famous institution in Catalonia, which has its sports city in Sant Joan Despí and will soon open here the new Miniestadi, did not end in the box."The following Monday we had a shirt signed by all the players of the first team," says Alba's father.Thus the Blaugrana Zamarra will become one more incentive to capture inscriptions, because it will be drawn among the attendees."I am very happy, perhaps we reach 600," says Jose Antonio Jiménez hopeful.
Step by step, Jiménez is overcoming challenges with the aim of achieving a better future for his daughter and the rest of diabetics."To get the cure, money is needed and for that we have to move," he claims.Antonio Machado already said: "Walker, there is no way, he makes his way to walking."
Source: La Vanguardia