Run and support: At the 25th Marathon of Zagreb – „Zagreb Calling» we ran for Ivan Capek

On Sunday the 9th of October 2016,our employees decided to participateat the 25th Marathon of Zagreb – „Zagreb Calling», and to support again our needy community members, through our „PRESS GLASS — Run and support” campaign. This time, it was decided that the donation will be given to our fellow citizen Ivan Capek who is struggling for years with a serious illness, and needs the money to continue his treatment.

10 of our employees decided to participate in the races —  nine were running the citizen race of 5 km, and one ran the marathon of 42.2 km. Despite the announced bad weather, which followed us even on our way to Zagreb, a sunny morning with ideal conditions for running welcomed us at the start. By participating in our campaign we gathered 2,130.00 HRK, and at the same time we all achievedour personal records. The best men’s result on the race of 5 km achieved Dario Posavec with a time of 0:17:06 hours, while the best female result achieved Stela Medved with a time of 0:26:06 h. Our only marathon runner DarkoMavriček completed the race with an excellent time of 3:54:20 h.

Furthermore, Ivan Capek is 29 years old and suffers from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a disease that is rare and extremely dangerous, but well known. He fights the leukemia since he was 26 years old and most of the timehe spent in hospitals, but so far he has gone through three major chemotherapy sessions in KB ‘Merkur’ in Zagreb. The only option which can save his life now is an expensive treatment in Leipzig, Germany. After consultation with experts in this field, it was concluded that Ivan was treated adequately and according to accepted protocols, but that he urgently needs a transplant of bone marrow.

Now the only option of treatment that remains now is with the drug ‘Nelarabine’ that could be available in Croatia only in a few weeks’ time, or an urgent bone marrow transplant from his brother Mark. Currently Ivan is better and his therapy works, and in mid-October a bone marrow transplantation is planned, which should be carried out immediately after the cessation of therapy in Leipzig, as the accommodation capacity in KB „Rebro” for bone marrow transplants are limited and anemergency transplantation can’t be guaranteed.

I thank everyone who participated in the races!