The journalist Pablo Rodríguez fulfilled one of his dreams: to write a book about his life in recent months, limited by Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP): a rare disease that was diagnosed in 2018 and against which, far from giving up , has not stopped fighting.
Pablo began to have difficulty walking, speaking, and doing everyday tasks. He had to stop working and one day his life changed completely. At the beginning, as he said in a report published in June in Diario de Avisos, he had a very bad time, but decided that the best way to cope with the disease was to live each day as if it were the last.
Thus was born Living living, a project that Pablo shared with two of his most faithful friends: Enrique Acosta and Tachi Izquierdo, who are also linked by the profession. For three months, his “lazars”, as he calls them, saw his progress, his setbacks, shared his joys, faced his fears, his disappointments, proposed changes in behavior that changed his quality of life, walked together, looked for solutions to the problems that arose and above all, they had a lot of fun and strengthened, even more if possible, their friendship. Ultimately, they lived.
Pablo considered that Enrique and Tachi were two people who could help him in his recovery process, both to walk and to talk, so he suggested that during that specific time they spend as much time together as possible. They helped him a lot to get out of the pandemic and he managed to be much stronger physically and mentally than when COVID-19 arrived.
In that role that they were called upon and which they were delighted to accept, Tachi and Enrique got so involved that, without having to consult any manual or delve into the history of a disease that until then they were unaware, they were inspired by their friend’s own behavior and They were seeing solutions so that they could communicate and walk better. “When we started with this adventure, Pablo barely took a few steps and within two weeks we were all over the place,” says Tachi.
Presentation of the book
This experience of three, for three months and the fruit of a great friendship, was like a kind of diary in which they told day after day what they did and gave rise to Vivir Viviendo, a book sponsored by the City Council of Tacoronte, in the that Pablo worked as a press officer, which is presented on Friday at the House of Culture of this municipality.
The common thread is the story of the trio of friends in which Pablo is the protagonist but each one describes in his own way how he lived those three months. “In its pages it is discovered little by little from the initial surprise of facing the reality that our friend lives, to how we looked for solutions to face it ourselves. It was narrating the lives of the three almost live, in great detail and telling the story of a struggle, but also of a great friendship “, emphasizes Tachi.
In fact, the cover is the photo that another colleague took of the three of them one day when they went for a walk in Las Cañadas del Teide, in which Pablo is seen helped by his two “lazars”. One moment of so many others that they took advantage of to be together.
Pablo was clear from the beginning that he wanted to share the testimony of his fight against PSP because it is a hope for many people who are diagnosed with a rare disease. That is why he considers it “very important” to make them visible, so that governments allocate sufficient resources to investigate them and thus a cure can be found in the future.
