My name is Mary. I was born among the trees of the Peruvian Amazon. I was a gifted child, always at the top of my class, inspired by the example of my mother, a nurse. That vocation led me to become a doctor and to dedicate my life to bringing hope, even in the most difficult moments.

I chose Intensive Care Medicine because I didn’t want to give up in the face of a severe diagnosis. I wanted to be that strong and compassionate presence during the most critical moments. Later, I specialized in Neurocritical Care and Cardiorespiratory Medicine in Mexico, completed a Master’s in Neuroscience and a PhD in Medicine.

But the violence and the challenges of being a woman in Latin America forced me to emigrate. It was not an easy decision, but it was necessary to continue practicing my vocation in freedom.

This is the story of many anonymous doctors, who had to leave their families and embrace a new language and culture as their own.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were on the front lines in hospitals. It was our hands that held many Spaniards during their loneliest moments. Thousands of us, non-EU doctors, gave everything — even losing our own loved ones thousands of kilometers away, without the chance to say goodbye.

Today, despite everything, our specialties, training, and years of experience are not valued. Not due to a lack of merit, but because we were born outside the European Union. This reality hurts and limits us. But it also unites us and drives us to raise our voices.

We have the right to be professionally recognized with justice and respect.

This campaign is for the thousands of non-EU doctors across Spain and Europe who read certain publications that question our abilities. It’s also for the patients, who deserve care — regardless of the nationality of their doctors.

With your help, I want to launch an awareness campaign and open channels of dialogue with institutions. We want to build bridges, not walls.

Because medicine is a vocation, not a passport. Because we all deserve the chance to heal — and to be recognized for it.

Thank you for helping me raise my voice. Thank you for believing in a more humane, borderless medicine.