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After saving a 68-year-old man on the Tagus River this Saturday morning, December 13, José Brito was on the television program “Você na TV”, on TVI, to talk about his life trajectory and the fact that he became a “hero” in the eyes of Portugal.
It is not only that José Brito has the gift of helping, he has been doing it since he was little. “I started working very early, at the age of eight. My mother made tobacco and my sister and I went to sell after school, door to door, ”says Manuel Luís Goucha and Mónica Jardim.
At age 12, when the mother had just had a baby and had no one, since the father had to leave the house, as well as the sister who already had her own home at 16, José Brito, as a son Older, she decided to sell fish, like her mother, who was a fishmonger in Cape Verde. José sold fish until he went to school, but the situation got so complicated that he ended up leaving school, he reveals.
“I came to Portugal when I was 21 years old because they detected me with chronic aplastic anemia. They evacuated me for a bone marrow transplant”, reveals José Brito, a transplant that saved him. He arrived alone in Portugal, although at that time he already had two daughters from one of the three companions with whom he had five children to date.
“The idea was to do the treatment and come back. I arrived on October 19, 2004,” he says, adding: “I thought it was going to be quick,” but we still had to find the donor.
“They asked me if he had siblings, he said he had nine. They drew blood from five and of those five he had two compatible,” he says. He was then given the option to choose the one he wanted for the bone marrow donation. “I chose my younger sister because the other one had just had a baby,” she says.
However, after receiving the bone marrow and the sister was already in Cape Verde, the body rejected the first transplant. They went to look for her again for a second transplant, an act that José Brito does not forget. “My sister is an angel, she saved my life,” says who is also the life saver of the 68-year-old man who fell into the Tagus River this Saturday.
Luckily for the saved, and out of danger of life, José Brito stayed in Portugal to live and work. “After two years of treatment, the doctor said I could do anything. Pick a job that wasn’t too heavy. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I could do it in the kitchen,” she said.
It was then at the Associação Vitae, a Support Center for the Homeless, that José Brito found a path that reflects his childhood and the act that now makes him famous. “I have been working in the Vitae association since March 28, 2007. That is what I want, to work with people who need help,” he admits.
The connection with the homeless is not the only one of the association, proof of this were the various messages left to José Brito, from friends and colleagues, who recognize their value. “You are an incredible human being, one of the most incredible people I know”, “an excellent father, an excellent person”, “always with a smile on your face, no matter the adversities of life”, they say, and there are still who recognize other gifts: “You are an excellent cook, I love your duck rice.”
One of the issues that moved José Brito was the distant relationship with two of the five children. “My daughters who were in Cape Verde, reached the age of 13, at a very complicated age,” he reveals. The distance over so many years has weakened the relationship and still leaves José hurt.
At his side, on the day of the rescue and in the interview this Wednesday, there is always Bryn, 7 years old, who, when questioned by the presenters about his girlfriends, reveals: “I have four”, causing laughter and a comment from Manuel Luís Goucha: “Well, you sure have someone to leave,” he jokes.
“A life is always a life. I didn’t think twice. I would do it again as many times as necessary.”, José Brito ends.
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