“Statistically, with the cancer I have, life is four years from when it is detected and I was diagnosed in October 2023, so it would not be possible to live until the 2028 Los Angeles Parlympic Gamesbut I am so motivated that I think I can get there. I don’t want to stop training because I firmly believe that I can get there.” Behind this testimony is Loida Zabala, a 37-year-old parathlete who competed in her fifth Games in Paris and who enjoys every day of life despite the thousand and one stones that he has encountered on his life path.
These words are spoken a few days after one of the brain injuries she suffers from has doubled in size, as she herself announced on her social networks.
“I had epileptic seizures and I stopped being myself. When I woke up, it was difficult for me to speak normally and there have been days in which I have been sleeping almost all the time to recover. As seen in the last head CT, The lesion that was 8×9 millimeters has increased to 16×19 millimeters“, said this para-athlete from Losar de la Vera (Cáceres).
This Thursday, Zabala updated the information indicating that the left frontal metastasis has almost tripled in size (22×25). Furthermore, in this post he reported that he was not going to take corticosteroids and announced that he was going to wait for the results of the MRI that will be done in a month.
In a conversation with El HuffPost before Christmas, Zabala He acknowledged that his spirit was a little low. and that he was actually waiting for the result of an MRI to see where the problem came from and if he was going to need intervention, but he seemed eager to return to normality and training.
Her life, since she was diagnosed at age 11 with transverse myelitis, a spinal inflammation that left her unable to walk, has been linked to constant self-improvement and adapted power lifting. “Today I would not know how to live without sport and I would not understand myself without sport”he asserts without his voice shaking in the slightest.
In fact, she can literally say that she risked her life on more than one occasion to go to the last Paralympic Games in Paris. “On October 28, 2023, while I was working at 012 in the Community of Madrid, my arm fell asleep and I could hardly communicate. That’s when they detected me lung cancer at stage 4 or very advanced, had nine brain tumors and they had to quickly medicate me because I was on the verge of becoming brain dead,” he begins.
Thanks to medication, he was able to save his life and recover within two months, but he lost all strength for two qualifying events for Paris. Despite that and knowing that he was risking his life, he decided to go to both: “The first was in Egypt. I couldn’t get on the plane because of the brain issue, but I went and, fortunately, nothing happened, but then, in the World Cup in Georgia, the food made me feel very bad. My immune system is not the same as it is for another person and They told my coach in the ambulance itself that I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the hospital. because it was very bad. Fortunately I was able to get out of there and come to Spain to recover. Despite everything, I was able to get that place for Paris.”
Furthermore, to get into the event in the French capital, Zabala had another big problem: he had to lose eleven kilos of weight. Lose from the 61 kilos I weighed in January to the 50 I needed to compete was, in his own words, “the most complicated thing” and the origin of the greatest risk he took and where he truly intentionally put his life at stake.
“I had to lose 11 kilos and with cancer medication it was practically impossible. I had to leave her for 17 days and I risked my life.but I needed to do it to get down. Thanks to that risk I achieved it and luckily it didn’t grow any more,” says this woman from Extremadura, who highlights that her priority was to compete in Paris. So much so that she even deceived her oncologist, since she gave her permission to stop taking the medication three days, not 17.
“Later I told her and I have to say that she has always been supporting me in everything I needed because He was also excited to have fulfilled my dreams.“says Zabala. Her mother did not want her to take those risks, but she also understood what it was like for her to be in Paris.
In fact, the images of the parathlete crying excitedly after being able to compete serve to realize the importance of this event in her life: “They were the most exciting, I was on the verge of dying several times and it seemed impossible to get there, So I couldn’t help myself.”
London 2012, another trial by fire in his life
Since making her debut at the Beijing Parlympic Games in 2008, this speaker and actress has not missed a single one. And not only did he have serious problems attending the last ones in Paris. Months before London 2012, The woman who was her partner at the time almost left her due to an assault without being able to compete.
He looks back to remember the episode, which he has already overcome and forgotten: “My partner at that time abused me on a physical level. I don’t know exactly why, but My right arm was injured and I couldn’t lift weights.. “It was very difficult for me to recover and at first I wasn’t going to be able to go to London, but I focused all my attention on that recovery and I was lucky to be able to fight it and get there.”
Furthermore, focusing all his attention on the Games in the British capital helped him turn the page and get out of that complicated situation. “It was very traumatic, I had a very bad time psychologically, but arriving in London helped me a lot“, sentence.
Despite that episode and although she thought she would never have a partner again, in 2019 she fell in love again. “In the end without realizing it, the heart is bandaged and moves on”he reflects.
Loida Zabala, with the gold achieved in the 2022 European Championship.
Illusion for life, but without fear of death
If there is something that characterizes Zabala, in addition to his passion for sport, it is his calmness when talking about death. He demonstrates this throughout the conversation and does not evade or dodge any question on the subject. ““I have perfectly accepted that I have a few years to live and that’s it.”
Since he was left in a wheelchair at the age of 11, his enthusiasm for life and for seizing the moment is evident: “When I sat up for the first time after lying for months in the hospital, it was an incredible experienceI was very happy because I felt free again. My life didn’t change either, I always did the same thing and I only changed from standing to sitting, so it wasn’t the biggest shock of my life and it was a lesson to make the most of life and freedom.”
In fact, he doesn’t even think about the eleven years in which he could run and jump at school, at home or in the park. “I prefer my later self because he is a person who is totally different, He is a person who falls and gets up and truly values freedom.. So, I would make that choice again if I could choose it,” he says.
This means that he is making the most of the years that remain ahead of him, waiting to see if science evolves to find a cure or a medicine that will allow him to prolong his life. “When the treatment I am taking stops working, I have another one prepared to replace it.. At the moment there is no cure, but you never know because today cancers are cured that were not cured before, it all depends on the investment made.”
The para-athlete Loida Zabala.
However, and although she has accepted her end, her family does have it worse: “They don’t accept it and it’s not something they want to overcome. As much as I try to help them so they can accept it, they don’t want to and at the moment I can’t talk about it much with them.”
“I understand that it is difficult. Look, there is the definition of a person who is a widow, of a person who is orphaned, but If you lose a child, there is no description of it.. There is no such word, being left without a son or daughter is the worst, having to bury a child has to be very hard,” he adds.
She, on the other hand, does not even shy away from the term euthanasia and the possibility of using it: “It is something that my relatives would also have to accept, but I have accepted it very well. As long as I can do the things I like and live normally, fine, but At the moment that I can no longer do them, obviously, I could request euthanasia.
Until then and with the hope that science will allow her to extend her life, she will continue training and enjoying life, as she has been doing until now. He has ahead of him to revalidate in 2026 that European championship that he won in 2022 and that made her the first Spanish to achieve it and, with a more long-term view, those Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
“I truly believe and trust that I can get there, So I’m going to put all my effort into achieving it.”concludes Zabala, who will continue enjoying and getting excited about all the seconds and all the adventures of his daily life.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
