Date: 9 May 2016
Place: Barcelona (Spain)
Objective: Contribute to organ donation in order to increase the number of transplants
Collaborators: OCATT (Catalan Transplant Organization) / Department of Health from the Generalitat de Catalunya, / FC Barcelona Foundation
Eric Abidal was appointed Catalan Transplant Organization Goodwill Ambassador (OCATT) in an event with FC Barcelona Vice President Jordi Cardoner, Minister of Health Antoni Comín and OCATT Director Jaume Tort.
With this project, the Department of Health from the Generalitat de Catalunya, OCATT, Eric Abidal Foundation and FC Barcelona sought to contribute to organ donation and increase transplants since, according to Tort, “in Catalonia there are 1,260 people waiting for a transplant right now”.
The campaign organisers explained they chose Eric Abidal as an Ambassador for the values he embodies, his being a role model and his personal experience as well as social commitment.
Abidal, who was accompanied by his wife, stated that “the gesture of donating organs can save lives. My cousin made the toughest decision in his life by donating part of his liver to me and thanks to that we are here alive; enjoying life and our family. Deciding in favour of organ donation can help many people and children.”
On the other hand, Jordi Cardoner thanked the people responsible for the project for bringing FC Barcelona on board and said “on behalf of the President and all members of the board this is your home and you will always have our support and that of our people.” Cardoner also thanked Abidal “because without you we wouldn’t be winning this donation match.”
Minister Comín used a football imagery and said “we’re winning this organ donations match but just by a slim margin. We’re still far from that 5-0 we’d like so much”.
