"Four years ago I became paralyzed, and now I'm going to cross the Sahara."

BarcelonaAt the Guttmann Institute headquarters in Badalona, ​​​​high in the mountains next to Can Ruti Hospital, a dozen wheelchair-bound patients took out their phones and took photographs of the team preparing to compete in the Titan Desert, the demanding cycling race that crosses the Sahara Desert. For the first time, a Guttmann team will participate. "It's nice to see how other patients look at what people who have been through difficult times like them can achieve," says Dr. Alex del Arco, a traumatologist at the Institute. Del Arco, who is passionate about sports, participated in the Titan Desert in 2015 and stated that he would not return after suffering from gastroenteritis. Now he will return with someone else.

The Guttmann team is made up of nine people, two with spinal cord injuries and two with brain injuries. The other five are doctors and nurses at the institution. "Everything we do is aimed at making things easier and integrating patients, promoting their inclusion. But the work doesn't end within the walls of this hospital. We have a great role to play in equal rights. We have an obligation to make visible the impact of sport on people who suffer," explains Montserrat Bernabeu, the co-director. This year, the Institute celebrates its 60th anniversary.^and anniversary, and with initiatives like this, "we want to highlight our commitment. To make visible the key role that sport plays in the acute phase of cases, as it helps make a dramatic change in people's lives," explains a woman who has been working for this cause all her life and who knows perfectly well about the power of sport, because it's talked about a lot at home, as it happens to be Gere.

But at Guttmann, Bernabeu is the doctor everyone admires without thinking about her family. The foundation has become a reference center for the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. Many people have been able to walk again or have regained mobility after going through it. It has improved everyone's lives. And since they're constantly brainstorming new ideas, the idea of participating in the Titan Desert from May 1st to 6th, a race that covers 550 km in six stages, came up with Dr. Del Arco. handbikes, which you pedal with your arms. They are very heavy bikes that require a lot of strength and traction to ride on the sand. The key, according to Del Arco, will be "to combine the capabilities of disabilities. We will pair up those with spinal cord injuries and those with brain injuries. They should help each other. If the handbike If the person with a brain injury gets trapped, the person with the brain injury must help them get out. If the person with the brain injury gets lost, the person with the brain injury must help them get out. handbike "We will show you the way," explains a man who admits that "we have found many NoMany people didn't see it clearly, believing we couldn't do it. But we're stubborn. This year the Foundation turns 60, and so am I. It was ideal to go with that team. If the camp we sleep on isn't adapted, we'll fix it. It's a lesson in teamwork and trust among people with different neurological injuries," he explains.

The team is made up of physiotherapists Miquel Sarrió and Roger Rifà, nursing assistant Alfonso Rubio, who runs to Guttmann every day from Mollet. And also doctors Jesús Benito and Del Arco. And the handbike"It takes someone very brave, and who better than two Navarrese with contagious positive energy? It makes more sense," says Iñaki. They both had the accident ten days apart in 2021, and four years later they'll head to the desert. "Damn, four years ago everything seemed like a disaster when I became paralyzed. So it could happen.

"We need inclusive societies"

The two cyclists with brain injuries are José Antonio Bugarín, Buga, from O Porriño, Pontevedra, who suffered multiple trauma with a head injury from being hit by a car while riding a road bike. And Cristian Casals, from Sarriá de Ter, a film and series producer, who was responsible for covering the Tour de France in the United Kingdom until he was hit by a car while riding on the road in August 2018. "In their cases, after the accidents, they are people who need order, to maintain certain guidelines, and that's why facing this race is a real challenge," says Del Arco. After having been able to train in Monegros and on the Costa Brava, Guttmann's team is ready to face its biggest challenge, although the handbike They will compete without entering the official rankings. "The idea is to have two teams and one person available to help out. The four of us will always go together through the desert to help each other," says Alfonso Rubio.

"It's exciting to see the Guttman logo at a race like Titan, and even more so that it's an initiative of the home team's professionals. Sport helps rebuild lives," explains Bernabeu, recalling how Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, after whom the center is named, was the creator of the Paralympic Games. "And we will do this by working as a team, showing that we should always help each other. We need inclusive societies, a better world," says Montse Caldés, co-director of a center founded sixty years ago when Barcelona businessman Guillermo González Gilbey suffered an accident and went to the center created by Guttmann Angla. So she decided to create a similar one in Catalonia, which has been doing great work for sixty years now and making sport an ally. It was enough to look into the eyes of the other patients when they saw these two Navarrese men climbing theirs. handbikes, ready to cross a desert.