Wants a village farewell
Raymond Arrieta starts on May 30 the tenth Da vida walk, in favor of cancer patients
"I am going to stop walking, but I am not going to stop helping the hospital. In this way, Raymond Arrieta reaffirmed his decision to culminate in this tenth edition of the Da vida walk, in favor of cancer patients, but said that "next year we will come up with another invention". The comedian saw his characteristic smile interrupted by tears and emotion as he explained the reasons that lead him to stop his walk, after 813 miles walked and $7,770,466.53 collected for the Oncology Hospital.
"I have to stop now. I have to stop because my family has asked me to. My father, my mother, my daughter, my wife and my son have suffered a lot," he admitted, who assured that unlike the physical pain, which is temporary, the emotional pain lasts.
Arrieta considers himself a new man since that first walk in 2009, motivated by Edgardo Huertas in the context of the death of Awilda Carbia, the centennial of Ramón del Rivero "Diplo" -who walked from San Juan to Ponce for cancer patients- and the first diagnosis of this disease that Dagmar faced.
The comedian took his first step inspired by Dagmar's cancer diagnosis.
"Thank you for your love, for your sincere dedication, your sacrifice; thank you. You didn't have to do it, but you did it, and on behalf of all cancer patients and survivors, thank you," added her partner on Telemundo's Día a Día.
When this effort began, "we didn't even have enough to pay for a $200 blood transfusion," recalled Ramón González, president of the Puerto Rican League Against Cancer, to exemplify the precariousness of the hospital, which that first year received $212,000 from the walk.
Since then and until now, the Oncology Center has made many advances, including subsidies for patients without financial capacity for chemotherapy treatments, radiotherapy, diagnostic tests and screening, as well as the construction of the Rehabilitation Center for cancer patients in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean and the inauguration of the Gastroenterology Center.
This year, Arrieta will tackle 83 miles in nine days, leaving San Juan on May 30, en route to La Guancha in Ponce, where a big town party with fireworks awaits him on June 7, at 7:00 p.m., in a special edition of Día a Día.
This year's donations will go to the hospital's Research Center, as well as the gastro area and the nuclear medicine center.
The initiative is supported by the song Nunca vamos a parar, which Black Guayaba composed at Raymond's request in just one week.
"When we wrote this song we thought not only as if we were Raymond, but a song that everyone could identify with, those who are walking and those who are battling cancer," explained Gustavo Gonzalez, lead singer of the band.
For his part, José Cancela, president of Telemundo, once again endorsed the life and mission of the station, which in a way, maintains the essence of the station founded by Ángel Ramos almost 65 years ago.
"You realize not only the physical part, but also the emotional part. This walk goes with Telemundo... (which has in ) its DNA to give, to contribute," said the general manager.
"I am blessed with the affection of a people," summed up the philanthropist, who evaluates ways to keep contributing to cancer patients.
Dedicated to Billy Fourquet
The tenth edition of Da vida will be dedicated to broadcaster Billy Fourquet, who recently passed away in the midst of his battle with liver cancer.
"I want to dedicate this walk to Billy Fourquet and all the people who fought and are not here and those who continue to fight and will be here," said the man who got a double tattoo on one of his arms, representing the traces that the event has left in his life, but also the lives that have been marked in this pilgrimage, as he pointed out in an interview with EL VOCERO.
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