José Manuel Salas, Mercedes Cánovas, Carolina Cánovas -with their children Lola and Pepe-, Manuel Fernández, Manuel Pardo, Laura Juguera and Miguel Garrido, from the Desire Ambulance Foundation. /
The NGO in charge of enforcing the last wishes of terminally ill patients today celebrates a gala at the Romea Theater, in which it will reward various initiatives to humanize healthcare
‘Where the impossible becomes reality’ is the motto of the Ambulance of Desire, an international foundation that emerged in the Netherlands in 2007 from the hand of ambulance driver Kees Veldboer with the aim of fulfilling the last wishes of people in a terminal phase or with mobility problems.
“We want to humanize health care by treating the patient and not the disease.” It is the challenge that this organization has set itself, which was launched at a national level after the celebration in Murcia of the Forum for the Humanization of Urgencies and Emergencies in 2018. «We invited the founder and agreed with him to get to work to create an extension of the initiative in Spain”, recalls the doctor José Manuel Salas, one of the ‘Murcian fathers’ of the solidarity project together with the nurses Manuel Pardo, Carolina Cánovas and Laura Juguera. Currently, about 150 volunteers work in the team who are the ‘shot’ of solidarity energy that responds to the last wishes of terminally ill patients throughout Spain.
About 150 volunteers work to fulfill the last wishes of terminally ill patients
The Romea Theater hosts a gala this afternoon in which the Ambulance of Desire will reward humanizing initiatives such as the one launched by the nurse Ana María Ruiz in the field hospital that was installed in Ifema when the Covid pandemic broke out. «I am very excited. That such special people notice me is a gift from heaven; What they do could not be more beautiful, “says this health worker from a town in Ciudad Real who, in addition to working in the Madrid Emergency Medical Service, is a great lover of reading.
Father Ángel, founder of Messengers of Peace, highlights that “they do a magnificent job”
Library ‘I will resist’
«I thought that books could help coronavirus patients and supply the emotional part that their relatives could not contribute at that time. So I took all the books I had at home so they could act as companions». That gesture led to the creation of the ‘Resistiré’ library, in which thousands of people contributed with their donations. “We got to have more books than patients,” he stresses.
Also recognized will be the Psychosocial Care team of the Order of Saint John of God, which is carried out by the Fundación Jesús Abandonado, providing support to patients in palliative care and their families, as well as one of the volunteers from the Ambulance of Desire, whose name has not been It has transpired to be a surprise, and to the former Minister of Health Manuel Villegas. The most special award – that of the late Kees Veldboer – will be collected by Father Ángel, founder of Messengers of Peace. For Father Ángel, since the foundation “they do a magnificent job” and he feels very grateful. “When recognition comes from an NGO, pride is greater,” he says.
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