A spaceship accompanies children on their missions against cancer

'La Nave', as this initiative launched in Malaga is called, has about one hundred square meters, three rooms to accommodate as many children with their parent, a kitchen, a living room and two bathrooms.

Changing school for a hospital, friends for unknown children, teachers for health workers in white coats, and games for medical tests is another way of life, a "strange" process that they live. minors suffering from cancer and that - to make it more bearable - They are welcomed in a house that looks like a spaceship.

Life in space is a “similar metaphor” to what these children experience, since “suddenly they go to another atmosphere,” like astronauts, explained the manager of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) in Malaga. , Pedro González, whose collective converted one of its reception floors to simulate the interior of a spaceship.

'La Nave' - as this initiative is called - is about one hundred square meters, it has three rooms to welcome as many other children with their parent, a kitchen, a living room and two bathrooms. When they decided to turn it into a spaceship, they contacted a company that had made movie sets and they made the final project for them. 

The origin, a bored child

A boy once told them that he liked staying in another foster home "much more" because it was "cooler.", so González had the idea of ​​transforming that apartment into something that they "enjoyed" and making its difference with other small ones something also “positive” in which to live an "adventure" on a ship.

The translator and mediator between the family and the entity, Fátima Zymbioui, has highlighted that children see everything "different and magical" and are "happy", since the ship helps them "forget a little" about their illness and They are not so afraid to go to the hospital, since they know that later they will return to this galactic space.

Astronauts between 5 and 12 years old

The social worker of the AECC in Malaga, Olga Santiago, has indicated that the little astronauts have between 5 and 12 years and the average stay is 7 or 8 months, although oncological diseases - cancer or leukemia - are "very serious" and "very long" and their treatment is "prolonged", so there is no time limit.

To be able to stay there They must live 30 kilometers from the capital of Malaga -where the Maternal and Child Hospital is located- and some come from Ceuta, Melilla and even Morocco.

A closed space, another type of food, another gravity and being far from their homes is what famous astronauts like Neil Armstrong share with the children who stay in this apartment converted into a spaceship, where They are in charge of fulfilling their missions to achieve the objective: to live.