There is great outrage in the area of ​​Los Barrios, in Andalusia, Spain, where some nationals committed an unthinkable act: stealing the money that has been spent with so much effort to treat a girl just 16 months old.

Those who committed this crime appropriated the money contained in one of the piggy banks placed in commercial buildings in Los Barrios, in Cádiz, to call for solidarity.

People have responded with their donations. Adults and children have contributed in the hope of finding clarity and improvement in little Valentina, who, Nius emphasized, “is an extremely rare disease unique in Spain.”

“In this city we all know each other, my whole city is dedicated to our girl, that’s why it’s so shocking to us (…) I can’t imagine how anyone is able to steal a collection from a girl who is is struggling to find a cure for her illness, it’s something that doesn’t cross our minds no matter how we think about it”.

These words, mixing pain with disappointment, are from Cristina Gutiérrez, Valentina’s mother, quoted in Nius.

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What does Valentina have?

The 16-month-old girl “suffers from an extremely rare disease, type 3 congenital hypomyalizing polyneuropathy,” Spanish media reported.

In the Diario de Cádiz they pointed out that 39 people worldwide suffer from this disease.

Valentina is not mobile and must be fed through a tube, the website said.

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Cristina, Valentina’s mother, explained that the baby had been diagnosed as “lacking a protein that surrounds the nerves, myelin, which means that the girl is barely mobile and causes hypotonia, that she has no muscles.”

“There is no treatment or cure for all this today,” he said in November 2022, according to the Diario de Cádiz.

When Nius learned of the theft of the money on September 6, 2023, he indicated that “the research, conducted by the Pablo Olavide University of Seville, has an annual cost of 50,000 euros.”

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Give Valentina’s money back

The news of the robbery was known through a company’s social networks, from which they dismiss what happened.

“Someone, with no soul or respect, stole Valentina’s piggy bank, where good people did their part to help her. From the La Piruleta store, we would like to communicate this sad and regrettable fact, true We will never be able to understand how there are people who take advantage of thatnot only from what is not his or does not belong to him, but also from the hopes and faith of his family, friends and neighbors,” said Nius.

In Los Barrios, where everyone knows each other and knows how difficult Valentina’s family is, the cry is one: “Give back the money.”

The mother also knows the effort the community has made to support her daughter and asks, says Nius, who took the piggy bank: “Let her leave it at the door of the establishment if she does not want to show her face, and that she will. not retaliate.” (JO)