Spain is at the bottom of Europe in childhood leukaemia survival. This means that a child with leukemia born in our country has less chance of survival than a child born in Finland, Denmark, Germany or Portugal. This is because, unlike in other countries, Spain has not yet financed accession to the Common European Protocol.
This, translated into numbers, would mean that In Spain, 30 fewer children died each year from leukemiaThe European protocol dates from 2018, while the one in force in Spain dates from 2013. This means that children like Daniel, who died last year from leukaemia, would have had another chance.It is very difficult to talk about a child in the past tense.“It’s very difficult to see his photos, his images and see them as a memory of what happened,” says David, his father.
Hand in hand and despite the pain they feel, David and Silvia manage to talk about their son Daniel, about how a second relapse of leukemia caused his light to be definitively extinguished.We had to say goodbye to our little one assuming the worst experience a family can go through,” he adds, broken by grief.
Daniel was Spanish and, because of his nationality, he could not be treated with the Common European protocol “All together”which could have helped him, since “he has a special magazine on relapses.”
On the other hand, the countries that lead the survival of childhood leukemia are part of the protocol. That is why the Spanish, who are in the queue, are asking for support for inclusion in the common European protocol on leucemiaveteya.org.
The actor Luis Tosar and collaborator of the Unoentrecienmil Foundation calls on administrations to get involved, because “the expense is minimal”: “We are talking about a million and a half euros that would change the percentage of children who could be saved each year.” he said.
The Unoentrecienmil Foundation is financing the protocol for 100 children with one million euros. “The problem is that there is no guarantee that after patient 100, patient 101 will be treated,” laments José Carnero, president of the Unoentrecienmil Foundation. For his part, Luis Madero, head of the oncohematology department at the Niño Jesús Hospital, is categorical: “this should be paid for by the Ministry of Health.”It cannot be funded by foundations or corporations“, he denounces in this video.
