The Argentinian influencer Santiago Maratea announced three new solidarity campaigns, one of which will cover a trip from Córdoba, Argentina to Spain for the treatment of a six-year-old child who has stage-four neuroblastoma in his left kidney.
Maratea is known for using the power of social networks to carry out solidarity campaigns. One of the most notorious was covering the expenses of a Medical Evacuation transfer for little Emma, an eleven-month baby girl who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, from Chaco to Buenos Aires. Recently, he managed to accrue the funds to charter a JetSMART Airbus A320 to transport the Argentinian delegation to the South American Athletics tournament that was hosted in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
His new campaign is bound to raise 35 million Argentinian pesos (320,000 euros) for Federico Ledezma, a six-year-old boy who lives in Cordoba and has been diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma in his left kidney. The little kid must travel to Barcelona to receive specialized treatment.
Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer of the sympathetic nervous system of the nerve network, which sends messages from the brain throughout the body. Fede underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in Argentina. Nevertheless, Ledezma’s condition worsened and the hopes are focused on an experimental treatment that is not applied in Argentina.
Federico needs to travel in an aircraft adapted for medical transfers, MEDEVAC, with doctors included. Something that is impossible on a commercial flight, especially with the restrictive situation of the country.
The non-profit organization Solidaire contacted Maratea to offer him an aircraft. The aircraft itself is nothing less than the Boeing 787-8 of the filmmaker and pilot Enrique Piñeyro.
«It is an incredible aircraft, it can be perfectly adapted to any need that Fede has since he is required to travel on a plane with medical care,» Santiago Maratea commented on his Instagram account.
Enrique Piñeyro acquired the Boeing 787-8 in February this year and since then has carried out a series of humanitarian flights around the world. It should be noted that a week ago the plane delivered 33 tons of food to northern Mozambique, to support the thousands of people displaced by the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado.
During the covid health crisis in India, due to the delta variant, Solidaire transported 20 tons of medical supplies and oxygen between Barcelona and the Asian country.
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See also: Behind the longest 787-8 flight: interview with Comlux’s CEO, Andrea Zanetto
During the aircraft’s certification period, Piñeyro made one of the longest flights in a Boeing 787 that connected Seoul, South Korea, with Buenos Aires, Argentina. The flight lasted 20 hours and 19 minutes and traveled a distance of 10,520 nautical miles (19,483 km).
Update 06:20 pm
The Boeing 787 left Ibiza in Spain bound for Buenos Aires in Argentina, then on July 21 it is estimated to arrive at 2:00 am (local time) in Córdoba.
