Ten kilometers of strokes in the open sea to achieve hours of research against childhood cancer

The adventure on which this man from Madrid has embarked began three months ago by chance. He listened to a podcast called 'Sons of the Resistance' in which A mother told how sport had helped her overcome the death of her daughter Vicky from cancer when she was only 5 years old. The loss encouraged him to start an association, 'Vicky's Dream', to try to raise funds for research, since the current funds are not very large.

Rubén Espinosa, host of the radio program, asked his listeners to be encouraged to send 30 sports challenges to mobilize people and convert their effort into hours of research. Alberto, father of two young children and with a very recent family history of cancer, was clear from the beginning that he wanted to collaborate.

He talked about it with David, his best friend and at the same time his coach, and he proposed, half jokingly, that he participate in an oceanman race, an international circuit of open water competitions that this year would stop at the Costa Azahar. The test consisted of swimming the 10 kilometers that separate Oropesa from the Sea of ​​Benicásim. Despite the extreme difficulty involved, Alberto accepted without hesitation, and since then he has not stopped training to be in shape for Sunday, the day the challenge will take place.

"I have always done sports and when I was young I did swimming. But "This challenge is as if someone who normally runs 5 kilometers considers doing a marathon.", says giving a measure of the ambitiousness of the test.

Since February, his days have been almost like a sudoku: he combines his job as a train driver on metro line 1 with his family life and demanding training sessions of an average of 14 hours a week. These weeks He has been seen running, swimming or riding a bike in the Las Presillas park, the Ronda Norte in Leganés or the La Fortuna pool. The fact that the perimeter confinements have prevented him from approaching the coast to train in the sea has been made up for with sessions of 600 lengths in the pool.

"I estimate that on Sunday I will spend three and a half or four hours swimming in the sea," he explains, confident that the conditions will be optimal and in his body's endurance. "I don't want to win, I'm going to finish the test", he points out. For Alberto this challenge is just the beginning. Hooked on sports, he is willing to prepare tests to raise more funds against cancer and asserts: "they can count on me for anything."

One among thirty solidarity challenges

Alberto Bahamontes is alone one of the thirty athletes who have agreed to convert their effort and personal sacrifice into funds for 'Vicky's Dream'. Three participants are completing an uninterrupted bike ride through the limits of the province of Guadalajara (1.000 kilometers), another has proposed to run the 15 km that separate Irún from Santiago in 860 days and some more will run a marathon or do a triathlon.

Everyone's goal is get 30.000 euros: what a year of cancer research costs. At the moment 18.132 have been collected. Of the 2.000 euros that Alberto has proposed to achieve, It already has 1.380 in contributions. All the available challenges and the possibility of adding can be seen in eThe 'Sons of the Resistance Team' section of the website www.ihelp.org.es.