Raquel became a star

Connected

Raquel knew about it. the severity of your illness and yet he faced it with enviable strength, always with Jorge by his side. An invincible tandem, as they had been since they joined their lives eight years ago. Hand in hand, like little ants, and adhering to their motto “many do much”, Raquel and Jorge were able to make sarcoma visible, raise funds by donating a giant grain of sand, and collect gestures of solidarity from five continents. All yellow!! In less than two years Sarcoma Challenge came to show rudeness in black and white an incurable disease that at best becomes chronic.

Sarcomas, a rare type of cancer that starts in bones or tissues such as muscles or nerves, are difficult to detect, so more research is needed to improve diagnosis and treatment, and in Spain there are few reference centers. So when a person is faced with this disease, the normal mechanisms often fail in other types of tumors that, due to their high incidence, have much greater control through clinical trials, tests, or proven treatments.

The titanic battle of a couple from Zamora with sarcoma, a rare and very aggressive cancer.

“Sarcomas are not curable; the only effective treatment is surgery to remove the tumor if possible. Beyond that, there is only systemic chemotherapy to try to stop the disease,” he told us. Raquel Fernandez a little over a year ago.

Knowing all these shortcomings, Raquel and Jorge decided to start working. It was a time of tireless struggle since they were diagnosed with a fatal disease, “when we thought that life was smiling at us and we believed that we could not be happier,” he was sincere. Jorge in front of his compatriots from Guarrate, on the day he announced the holiday.just three weeks ago.

Although this woman from Vigo was battling cancer, she is married to Jorge Pascual, Guarrate’s son, has never neglected public awareness of the seriousness of malignancy. “It could attack any of us,” and he kept calling on the authorities to demand further investigation. Patients demand more certainty in the first diagnosis. “This disease does not give a break, we need research to save more lives.” This was the mantra of Raquel and Jorge as they knocked on every possible door. More than two years of tireless battles on land, at sea and in the air.

But the brilliant Galician engineer understood from the first moment that she was facing a ten-headed monster. She struggled with the fragility of an increasingly fragile body until, as Jorge said, “last Sunday Raquel became a star. After so much effort and so much suffering, she deserved to rest.” He was 42 years old and had two small children.

Zamorano, who gives everything to yellow: a new challenge in the fight against sarcoma

Life is bloody, it strikes completely irrationally. How to find an explanation for such an early death. How to understand Raquel’s passing, she was so positive, so combative, so full of life, although the disease was eating her from the inside.

Just two weeks ago I was supposed to be with Jorge at the proclamation of the Guarrate festival. But things were not going so well. And it was the guarrateño, on behalf of both of us, as always, and this time making a superhuman effort, painted this town yellow again early in the morningwho was so generous to make the sarcoma visible. “Don’t forget that life is now, and now is the time to enjoy it,” Jorge said, immersed in a sea of ​​emotion.

At this time, on the afternoon of June 21, Raquel was hospitalized in Vigo hospital. The disease progressed without treatment until his life was cut short on July 7. Raquel is said to have retained her dignity until her last breath. He said goodbye to his loved ones with letters written in his own hand.

But the legion of relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues, patients who fought on the same battlefield did not let us down… They were there. In Vigo, they say goodbye to Raquel, cheer on Jorge, Juan and Lucy’s parents. They came, of course, from Guarrate, from Valencia, from Switzerland, from Bilbao, from Salamanca… For this family, broken by pain, there is no consolation other than “eternal gratitude for the support we have given”. Another example of the indelible mark that Raquel leaves.