By IANS/EFE,
Buenos Aires: The youth wing of the ruling Peronist Party in Argentina has asked the people to donate blood for the surgery of cancer-stricken President Cristina Fernandez.
The 58-year-old Fernandez would undergo surgery Wednesday to have a malignant thyroid tumour removed.
“The campaign was the idea of our youngest members as a positive, unified way to channel all the support we can to Cristina in this very special moment she must go through,” said Lorenzo Beccaria, one of the organisers.
He said the young party members were “convinced” that that president will pull through and come out “strengthened” by the surgery at the Austral Hospital in Pilar, 60 km from Buenos Aires.
The campaign was organised by the Peronist Youth and La Campora, the political youth wing led by Maximo Kirchner, Fernandez’s eldest son.
Fernandez has begun her second term in office after winning the election in October 2011.
Doctors said Fernandez was suffering from a type of cancer most likely to be cured, as in more than 90 percent of cases, with an excellent chance of a full recovery and leading a normal life after surgery.
The president will go on a 20-day medical leave, during which the government will be led by Vice President Amado Boudou.