The book “The most important race of our lives” recounts, in the voice of a mother and with a prologue by actress Andrea Legarreta, the achievements of Mateo Díaz, a Mexican boy who suffers from a rare disease and who practices enduro (motorcycling in the open field ).
“I didn’t even have to think about it. For me it was a very strong and very shocking experience, an unexpected experience that shook me in a very beautiful way,” said the Mexican presenter and actress in an interview with Efe about the moment in which she was invited. to participate in the project.
Mateo was diagnosed in 2017, when he was eight years old, with aplastic anemia, a disease that reduces the production of blood cells causing fatigue and risk of infections and bleeding.
But today she is a young enduro promise and her mother, Valentina Martínez – Legarreta’s cousin – wrote the book to share the complicated process they went through as a family and, above all, to give a message of hope.
Likewise, he considered that it is important to know this type of story despite not having gone through anything similar since one can learn from them and “nobody is exempt from what can happen to them.”
However, the presenter considered that Valentina’s purpose in writing the book, published in 2022, “although perhaps she had not realized it”, was to write for herself, to find an escape route, and share everything she lived through.
Because of this, because of the good relationship over the years, and because of the “shocking” experience, Legarreta, who described Mateo’s story as a miracle, did not hesitate for a moment whether or not to participate in writing the prologue.