Jesús Calderón
Crew
Jesús Calderón, 45, is from Bilbao, Spain. Jesús lives in a town called Getxo on the coast of Vizcaya (North of Spain) with his wife and their two kids aged 9 and 10.
Jesús has had a career in financial markets throughout his professional life and always liked to do all kinds of activities: outdoors, ski, golf, singing, dancing, sailing... He enjoys his spare time as much as possible and has always considered himself a very lucky guy.
On September 2013, Jesús suffered a hard relapse, which put him down for a few months. Finally, he was diagnosed with MS on March 2014.
For the first time in his life he was terrified about the future and became even more conscious of the really important things in life, and of not wasting energy on things, which are not important. Since then he has been determined to live life to the fullest and enjoy the little things everyday, worrying less about long term plans.
When asked how he found out about the Oceans of Hope journey, Jesús replied, “First time I heard about Oceans of Hope was one year ago while reading a newspaper. I thought to myself "lucky people" as it was a really exciting adventure, but it seemed to be for a few privileged people. Just a few weeks ago, while working at the office, I received an email from a friend of mine who put me in touch with somebody at the Spanish Association of MS where I am associated. The email included a short briefing on the Oceans of Hope project asking for people interested in joining the Sailing Sclerosis crew onboard Oceans of Hope. After a minute of considering (do I meet all the requirements?? Would I be able?) and a quick phone call to my wife I moved fast. A little while later I couldn't believe I was officially a member of the Oceans of Hope crew. Amazing!”
Jesús explained that the main purpose of the trip for him is to spend more time with people diagnosed with MS as he’s been working and spending his life trying to leave aside the illness, but now he would like to know much more and develop a deeper understanding of the disease. As he said, “I think it's a great opportunity to know more about the symptoms, sharing experiences and stories with people in the same situation. The environment is unique out at sea in an atmosphere that will allow us to work together as a team and have enough time to get to know each other. On top of this, I am proud to be part of this challenging project, which helps sharing this complex disease with the rest of the world and raising awareness – an investment in one day finding the cure for the disease.”