Arturo Grávalos talks to ‘Txirrindulariak’ on the occasion of World Cancer Day: “We must not postpone anything in life, we must make the most of every minute”

Since 2000, every 4th February has been World Cancer Day. A day promoted by the World Health Organisation, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) that seeks to raise awareness of this disease and to encourage greater social and institutional mobilisation in terms of prevention and research.

On the occasion of this year’s edition, the young Riojan rider for EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team Arturo Grávalos has been the protagonist of an interview in Txirrindulariak, a Basque audiovisual media specialised in cycling. In it, the cyclist from Cervera de Rio Alhama, who is recovering from a brain tumour that forced him to undergo surgery at the beginning of November, talked about his experience.

“I thought about everything I wanted to do and didn’t do, I thought about all the people I love and didn’t tell… I have really realised that you don’t have to put off anything in life, you have to make the most of every minute. We don’t live forever. You have to ask yourself if you are the best person or the best cyclist you wanted to be”, says Grávalos who adds, with determination: “I’m going to come back to the team, but I’m not going to come back in any way”.

Cancer is one of the great diseases of our time and one of those that concentrates the greatest efforts for its study and eradication. Essentially, with the exception of blood cancers, it is the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of a group of cells that give rise to lumps. It is estimated that more than 14 million cases are detected worldwide each year and almost ten million people die from this disease. In Spain, data from 2020, more than 275,000 cases were detected.

“When am I going to start running again? I prefer to take it step by step. For the moment I want to wait until the radiotherapy process is over and see how everything is going with the doctors,” says Grávalos. “During this time you think about a lot of things. Without a doubt, the biggest things are in the small details of day-to-day life. And one lesson you learn: if you want something, but if you really want it, you have to go for it. Because you have to make the most of time.