Francisca Sánchez is 86 years old and lives alone in her house in La Felguera. She has a heart condition and is waiting to have a pacemaker or a valve, the doctors will decide shortly. She has been a widow for more than 30 years and her pay does not allow for many excesses, although it does allow her to contribute what she can to the Red Cross, much less than what the organization contributes to her. Years ago her son had an accident “and they were the first to help him.” So she looked for information and joined forces; Since then she is still there. “Red Cross is like God, they are everywhere,” says Francisca Sánchez.
The octogenarian knows it well: she goes to them when she needs them, although in reality it is the volunteers who care about her. She does tai-chi, she goes to singing and theater classes but many times she feels alone. “I go to the Red Cross, but I don’t come much because I don’t like to bother,” she explains, all cautious. She likes to talk and interact, but at her age there are few environments in which she can do so. This Tuesday she went to the health school that the Red Cross set up at its premises in Langreo. “Here we can talk about our feelings, something very important, because when you live alone you can’t do it,” Francisca emphasizes.
Simple and affable woman, she has nothing but words of gratitude. «They help me a lot. They call me on the phone and lend me a lot, they never forget to call me on my birthday and from time to time to ask me how I am and if the medal (the telecare device) works for me. At that moment, Francisca stops and explains that when she leaves the house she leaves the medal at the door, where she hangs the keys. “When I arrive I put it on.” She is always connected in case something happens to her, but she is also very worried about having someone to talk to and be able to vent. This Tuesday she attended the mental health workshop, where she says she “learned a lot.”
Jesús Nieto is from Blimea, in San Martín del Rey Aurelio, but he lives in Langreo and, since the pandemic, alone. His wife suffers a lot from her bones and there is no elevator in her building, so she lives with a son in León. At 86, he went to the Red Cross health school “because they always help us a lot” and “to learn things.” In one of the workshops, the road safety workshop, he understood, for example, “how roundabouts work.” “I leave here knowing many things that I didn’t know before,” he acknowledged. “I have been in the Red Cross for years and I go to all the events they do because you learn a lot, they help the elderly a lot,” he says.
Numerous Red Cross users from the Nalón Valley participated in the workshops. The entity’s health coordinator, David del Valle, explained that “health is not only not having diseases, but also having healthy aging.” For this reason, the Red Cross develops, as could be seen this Tuesday in Langreo, activities related to emotional health, road safety, healthy eating, community health, the end of life in solitude or fragility in older people. It is about offering these people the necessary tools to lead a better life.
The regional president of the organization, José María Lana, approached the Red Cross headquarters in Langreo yesterday; the mayor of Langreo, Roberto García, and the manager of the Nalón health area, Bernabé Fernández.
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