Málaga province saw a 1,300% increase in the number of people signing up as bone marrow donors last year, a huge boost that officials say is due largely to the efforts of local 20-year-old leukaemia patient Pablo Ráez – whose campaigning also appears to have had an impact beyond the province.
The effect of Pablo’s campaign, which started last August when an open letter he published on Facebook went viral, is clearly demonstrated by figures from the Regional Blood and Transfusion Centre. From January to June of last year, an average of around 300 new donors signed up each month. In August, following Pablo’s letter, a whopping 2,002 people signed up, climbing even further to 3,808 in September.
