The Touching Story of Nicolás: Solidarity that Crosses Borders to London and Paris

The life of Nicolás, a boy from San Pedro Alcántara, took a drastic turn just over a year ago. At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with an extensive brain tumor that required very urgent surgery. For his parents, Julieta Banffi and Damián Fernández, their world collapsed at that moment, but it was even harder to learn that the surgery would cause significant aftereffects for their son. It was at that moment that a battle began, which has now spanned 12 months of specific treatments and psychological and motor rehabilitation, with a miracle now possible in the form of a vast wave of solidarity that has just reached London and Paris. "I cry when I tell what just happened to me," Damián recounted this Thursday. "María Bravo, from the Global Gift Foundation, just called us, and they explained that the profits from the next two international galas will be used to purchase the adapted vehicle our son needs for transportation, which we have been trying to acquire for a year," he adds from Catalan lands. He explains the reason for traveling outside of Andalusia: "We have been here since Monday because, with the funds raised through various actions and festivals for Nicolás, we now have the opportunity for our son to be treated over the next few months at the Guttmann Institute in Badalona, which is a hospital at the forefront of neurorehabilitation techniques in Europe." Nicolás was born into a humble family in San Pedro Alcántara. The son of a plumber and a garment embroiderer, he has a younger brother, Tiago, three years his junior. The aforementioned surgery allowed the removal of the cancerous cells, but during the last year, with constant care at the Maternal and Child Hospital in Málaga, where he has received volunteer support from Avoi, the Málaga association for children with oncological diseases, he has significantly improved. His parents report that the boy has required treatments from neuropsychologists, experts in respiratory, neurological, or motor physiotherapy, as well as professionals from the Junta de Andalucía dedicated to occupational therapy or speech therapy. Meanwhile, his parents have been able to reside in the capital of Málaga for the last ten months with the help of the Cesare Scariolo Foundation initially, and the Ronald McDonald Foundation subsequently. At their latest charity lunch, this October, the Global Gift Foundation already allocated all its proceeds to fund new treatments for Nicolás. The founder of this entity based in Marbella, businesswoman, actress, and philanthropist María Bravo, expressed this Thursday that since she learned about Nicolás's case through her colleague Patricio Moreno, she felt the need to "act immediately." With the support of Casa Ángeles, as a home that has actress and philanthropist Eva Longoria as its honorary ambassador (host of the events and galas of Global Gift), the boy has also received unimaginable international support for his parents a year ago. "He is a child full of light, with immense desire to overcome, and he deserves all our support. He also needs an adapted car to be able to move safely and comfortably, so I have set out to raise the necessary funds to make it possible," María Bravo confirmed to this newspaper. Nicolás's parents recognize that without this institution, the Andalusian administration in healthcare assistance, or the volunteers and philanthropists who have joined this battle, "it would be totally impossible to cope with the more than two thousand euros needed for our son's therapies." They take advantage of the platform represented by the newspaper they usually read to thank Badalona, and all the people who have attended to them these days, for rallying around Nicolás from the first moment.