Three years ago, when Madrid-born Álvaro Trigo was 23, an unexpected event marked the course of his life forever. A fire in his grandmother's country house in Jaén caused burns on 63% of his body surface. He was reborn. After ten days in a coma, four very hard months awaited him at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville. But, despite the unbearable pain and discomfort, Álvaro confesses that he remembers those times with nostalgia. He feels lucky to have survived and feels that he must repay the favor that has been done to him. Now, every year, he dedicates a sports challenge to a charitable cause. The last one closely related to his beticism. He traveled 110 kilometers to Villamarín where the young man was waiting for him for whom they had obtained two prosthetic legs, after having also lost them in a fire. The two walked the last few meters on the verdiblanco grass. He will tell about his experience next Tuesday, October 19, at the Seville edition of the What Really Matters Congress.
Is it your first time in the LQDVI Congress?
I participated with them in Granada last May, in a hybrid meeting between face-to-face and online. I was very excited that they called me because since I was little I have always seen the congress, and it seems to me a very necessary project, to bring values closer in these times and that not everything is so superficial. A bit of reflection. It helps me to listen to him and it helps me to talk.
A key event that you tell on stage is the fire that changed your life, what did it consist of?
It was February 2, 2018. I was studying Advertising and preparing for exams for Firefighter. It was a domestic accident in the living room of my grandmother's house in Andújar, in which luckily there was no one else. When I went to try to turn it off, everything fell on me. My arms, legs and back were burned.
How was the recovery?
I was in a coma for ten days, then they put me on the floor, where I had thirteen operations. He didn't have a very good prognosis. But the day I woke up from the coma, they told my mother that in a year she could be running the Seville Marathon and I believed it. And I made it a reality, after a year I ran it. I had a lot of help from the people at the hospital, nurses and doctors from Virgen del Rocío supported me and even came to the finish line, it was very exciting.
And you take the sport one step further, thinking of others, why?
Yes, I realized that I had motivated people who were still in the hospital. Six months before the fire, my sister died in a traffic accident. That added to the fact that so many other people died while I was in the burn unit, makes me think that I am lucky, but having survived is not free. I have to return it. And I dedicated myself to doing long-distance sports challenges. I carry three. In the first one I swam from Formentera to Ibiza. And in 2020 from the Cíes Islands to Vigo, with chained feet. In both cases to raise funds for the NGO Formation Senegal.
The last one last May in Seville
The most emotional of all. I keep in touch with the nurses and if they have a patient in a situation similar to mine they call me to see if I can help cheer them up. That's how I met Daniel, a boy who had both legs amputated after a fire. Talking to him I realized that he had incredible strength and needed 90,000 euros for the prosthetic legs. Although I am from Madrid, I am very very Betis, and from Betis they behaved very well with me when I was in the hospital. It occurred to me to contact them to see if we could do something to raise funds, because, in addition, Daniel is also from Betis. In the end, a good one was put together, the quantity was achieved and I ran 110 kilometers with my father from Ubrique, where this boy is from, to the Betis stadium.
How was that arrival?
It was incredible. I had run from 7 in the afternoon until 12 in the morning, because the sun cannot give me. And in the stadium people from the hospital were waiting for us with the flags. Also Daniel with his prosthesis on. Still on crutches, we walked the last meters together.
It must have been exciting to see Daniel at that moment
Imagine, the goal was not to run for the sake of it, but to arrive and see that everything made sense
What goes through your mind the first few weeks in the hospital?
First, that I am going to die. They told me about all the infections that I was going to have and that they were going to get complicated. Apart from the pain. You can imagine what it is like, throwing up non-stop and crying. I had a very strong downturn, I did not want to continue.
Do you remember it frequently or do you prefer not to think about that time?
I do remember and in fact with nostalgia. Because everything has turned out to be a change for the better. I remember a lot about the support of the nurses. For me and my parents, the professionals became part of the family.
Do you also have in mind the people you have contacted to help in his recovery?
Each and every one has a different story. Many times you are going to help and they help you even if they don't know it. You see again how fragile we are and it helps you a lot to reflect.
What is it that really matters?
Surround yourself with people who help you become great and once you are, become the one who helps.