- Tuzos vs Pumas, a Mexican Liga Match dedicated to Heroes for Life
- Leandro Augusto, former player and current manager of Club UNAM, and Pedro Cedillo, vice president of Pachuca Football Club, received the Heroes for Life recognition, in a simple and moving ceremony.
- In the stadium, more than 300 people gathered, including people who have been transplanted, waiting for a transplant, medical teams, donation coordinators and social workers.
Saturday April 11, 2015, Hidalgo Stadium, 8:00 p.m., the stands practically full, the match Pachuca’s Tuzos vs UNAM’s Pumas starts.
At the end, the local team prevailed with 2 goals from Ariel Nahuelpan and 1 from Christian Penilla. Matias Britos scored 1 goal for Pumas.
The game started very intense. Both teams were frontal; so the ball was constantly moving from one area to the other. However, that high energy fell down as the minutes passed. After 31 minutes, the Tuzos obtain their first goal. Christian Penilla shot with his left, crosswise, and opened the scoring.
But the pleasure lasted shortly, as Matías Britos scored with the head after Javier Cortes took a free kick in the minute 46, tying the score.
Both teams keep looking to score, until Pachuca replaced Dario Cvitanich with Ariel Nahuelpan. After a minute, he touched the ball for the time, and scores with the head.
The picture became more complicated for the visitor team, which lost Silvio Torales after a double yellow card in the minute 63. The final nail in the Pumas’ coffin fell at the minute 82, when Dario Veron fouled Nahuelpan inside the area, who took the penalty sentencing the match.
With this result, Pumas broke the streak of four straight winning duels; while Pachuca reached 18 units.
Before the game, it was held a special ceremony for Heroes for Life, the permanent campaign for voluntary organ donation, launched the Carlos Slim Foundation.
Maria Belen Ordoñez Baez, a small girl who received a kiidney, and children Juan Carlos Serrano Torres and Fernando Juárez Cruz, both waiting for an organ, gave the Heroes for Life recognition to the Club UNAM in the hands of Leandro Augusto, former player and now manager of the team with which he won four league titles, a Champion of Champions and the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu, before announcing his retirement after 19 years as a professional player. The group of kids also delivered the Heroes for Life recognition in a simple and moving ceremony to Pachuca Football Club, in hands of Pedro Cedillo, vice president of the Club.
In the stadium, more than 300 people gathered, including people who have been transplanted, waiting for a transplant, medical teams, donation coordinators and social workers. The event included representatives from different States of the Republic, including: Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Querétaro, State of Mexico, San Luis Potosi and Hidalgo.
During the 90-minute match, local sound was inviting fans to become Heroes for Life and decide to donate their organs when no longer need them. Players came out with shirts to promote donation and giant screens showed some players inviting people to become donors. At the end of the game, Diego Alonso, Pachuca’s coach, and many of the players joined the campaign and received their voluntary donor credential, such as Oscar “Conejo” Perez, Diego De Buen, Hirving Lozano, and Dario Cvitanich, among others.
Heroes for Life campaign promotes the donation of organs and tissues for transplantation. Seeks to raise awareness and inform the public about the importance and significance of organ donation. The goal is to count with more donors every day, in order to help people who are waiting to be transplanted.
Currently the number of people waiting for a transplant increases day by day. In Mexico there are more than 19,000 children, women and men who are registered waiting for an organ to live. In Mexico, the number of organ donors is ten times lower than in other countries like Spain. That is why it is urgent to raise awareness about donating to give a living opportunity to more people.
A person who donates his organs when no longer need them can save more than 7 lives.
In addition to promoting the organ donation culture, the Carlos Slim Foundation has a support program for transplantation, which works through partnerships with states governments, National Institutes of Health, hospitals and civil society. From 2001 to 2014 the Foundation has supported 8,197 transplants.
