«Let’s hope that next year the number of raised hands will be at least double the number they are now. Are we going to try?»

These were the words of Pietro Dal Pra, during the 2010 edition of Melloblocco right after Giovanni Spitale’s introduction on bone marrow donation when the audience was ask to raise their hands if they were donors.

Since that Melloblocco many more initiatives united the climbing and bone marrow donation communities. Examples of this were the collaboration in occasion of the Rockmaster, the distribution of tee-shirts in various italian gyms and the creation of a logo and a website devoted to climbers and marrow donation. (www.climbforlife.it).

Initiative after iniziative, meeting after meeting, ever growing has been the realisation that the climbing community is a fertile ground to promote donation culture.

The number of pathologies treatable with bone marrow transplant is growing but the number of donors is not. Why shouldn’t we try to improve this situation? There are people who feel part of a community only because they subscribe to groups on faebook like “I don’t hang on quickdraws”.

Can we become a community for something better than this? Saving someone’s life maybe? These ideas were the  foundation upon which the collaboration between Climb for Life, supported by ADMO –the Italian bone marrow donors association-, and Melloblocco was buit apon. During Melloblocco, in May, there will be a stand dedicated to the topic, with volunteers, information, and a few curious surprises.

And if also this year very few hands will be raised at the question of how many people are donors, our aim will be to enlarge that number by 2012, always if the world does not implode!

Pietro dal Pra and Giovanni Spitale