Logroño, June 26 (EFE).- Juan Vicente del Álamo, the only Spaniard who has received three heart transplants, died this Monday at the age of 62.
Del Álamo had suffered from heart problems since 1979 and was transplanted in 1990, 2003 and 2012, which he reflected two years later in his book “As de corazón”, with which he tried to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation and convey his experience.
He also made this importance visible through the practice of sport, especially tennis, where he came to win several European transplant games and was even proclaimed world runner-up; and he covered some sections of the Camino de Santiago.
In August 2014, Del Álamo, on the occasion of the presentation of his book, explained to EFE in Logroño that “sport is a way of giving thanks for what life has given me and also a way of encouraging donation.”
Throughout his life, “the desire to live” has allowed him to “pull forward”, despite the “hard” moments he has gone through due to the three transplants, but “the good things outweigh, the desire to to live and gratitude to those who donate organs at a time as sad as the death of a loved one,” he stressed at the time.
This man from La Rioja, treated at the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra, was committed to “maintaining the flame of donations” and “making others aware that you can give life to others through your organs”, something that “we must not stop saying ”.