Volunteering

“I want to see the beauty in people”

Susanne Marosch: Well-traveled and busy, but her heart is in "Giving for Life".

(Bild: Dietmar Mathis)

Vorarlberg is the "Land of Volunteering". In his new series, author Robert Schneider brings people who are committed to helping others in front of the curtain. He recently met Susanne Marosch.

A stroke of fate in 1999 prompted Susanne Marosch's mother to found the "Geben für Leben" association together with two friends. This association has set itself the task of finding stem cell donors for people suffering from leukemia. Susanne Marosch's cousin Doris had suffered a relapse during treatment and urgently needed life-saving stem cells. In desperation, the women first looked for possible stem cell donors among family and friends and informed the available media. Finally - as if by a miracle - a donor from Wales was found who saved the patient's life. "Doris still celebrates her birthday twice a year out of gratitude," says Ms. Marosch, whom I meet for a chat in the association's offices. "Once on her real birthday and a second time on the day of the transplant."

If the badly battered word "power woman" applies to anyone, it is Susanne Marosch, the chairwoman of the association. "I'm just going to talk off the top of my head, and then you summarize it," she says and laughs. She radiates warmth and confidence and is someone who knows exactly what she wants. "Of course, there's always that feeling of powerlessness at the beginning when you're diagnosed with leukemia, the feeling that there's nothing you can do, that you have to leave everything to the doctors. But I'm always amazed at the power that arises when you take action yourself and call on people to be typed. I have fallen on the sunny side of life, I am healthy, so I can give back a piece of gratitude to society."

Tried out many things
Susanne has tried many things in her life. After graduating from tourism school, she trained as a police officer and was one of the first women in this profession in this country. After six years, she changed her job, became self-employed and set up a multi-level marketing business with natural products. "When that went well, I thought it was time for a trip around the world. But I just met a restaurateur in Feldkirch who asked me to rebuild a run-down bar in a cool vaulted cellar in Feldkirch. This became the "Churchill". It was a childhood dream of mine to run a bar one day. I gave myself a year. And it worked. It went extremely well. Then I was approached by an entrepreneur from Liechtenstein, where I was able to set up my own department for international HR management. The world tour didn't work out again, or only in stages. Yes, and I ended up working for 'Trenkwalder Sports Austria', a company that specializes in staff outsourcing for ski schools."

Association "Give for life"

www. gebenfuerleben.at

Sparkasse Bludenz Bank AG

IBAN: AT39 2060 7001 0006 4898

BIC: SSBLAT21XXX

Fierce headwind
When Susanne talks so enthusiastically about everything she has done in her life so far, you almost feel lazy and inactive. I want to know whether she's ever had anything like a burnout. "At some point, all the traveling and working to expand the 'Give for Life' project became too much. When you no longer know whether you're in Stockholm or Budapest, it becomes critical. I also simply wanted to continue working on the idea of 'Geben für Leben'. I felt that I was needed there. The structures needed to be improved and expanded. In 2015, I founded Austria's first private stem cell donor center. In terms of size, we have now overtaken Australia and Hong Kong. Although we are facing strong headwinds from some institutions, I can say that we are now well established. We owe this to our hundreds of volunteers who support us, e.g. at typing campaigns or charity events, on social media, etc."

Important support for sick people.

(Bild: Dietmar Mathis)

I ask Susanne, who incidentally was awarded the Toni and Rosa Russ Prize in 2019, whether someone who has achieved so much in life still has any visions. "Of course I still have visions. In Austria, just three percent of the population is typed. In Cyprus, to name just one example, the figure is 22.5 percent. One goal is to raise this percentage to at least five percent in the coming years through increased media work. We are talking about several hundred thousand typings. That's not easy. This year we have carried out over 25,000 typings. This required one million euros in donations. So there's a lot of work and logistics behind it. Another dream of mine would be that everyone in Austria knows about 'Geben für Leben', that a person affected, a family with a sick child, doesn't have to ask and search for a long time, but knows that there is someone who will accompany us, help me, support me, give me hope that it will turn out well. Unfortunately, it is often the case that those affected have a long ordeal behind them before they finally find us. On the other hand, I have noticed an incredibly high level of willingness among the population. There is an enormous amount of solidarity in helping others. The myth that everything is becoming brutalized and that everyone is only looking out for themselves is not true for me at all. I'm actually seeing the opposite."

Unconventional help
I ask Susanne how we can actively help to save lives. "Anyone between the ages of 17 and 45 who is healthy can register in the global, pseudonymized stem cell donor database. The larger this database becomes, the greater the chance of finding a genetic twin for the patient(s). There is also the option of donating money. A laboratory analysis costs the association 40 euros. The more money we collect, the more typing can be carried out. An important part of the DNA is then determined using a cheek swab. Unconventional ideas can also help us. Someone celebrates their birthday and says to themselves: "I already have everything anyway. I set up a donation box with my friends and acquaintances for this purpose. It also helps us a lot if we are repeatedly shared on social media and thus spread the word. In this way, the likelihood of not only giving hope to sick people grows from day to day, but the increase in typing means there is a real chance of saving more and more lives."