A couple from Pedro Betancourt, Matanzas, decided to forgo hundreds of dollars to help a family desperately searching for a medication to treat their father's cancer.
José Luis and Liset donated three vials of cisplatin, a drug used in chemotherapy treatments, after seeing the plea for help from Leidi Ramírez, the patient's daughter, on social media.
Medications could reach about 130 dollars per bottle in the informal market, according to information shared regarding the case. Instead of attempting to sell them, the couple decided to hand over all three without asking for anything in return.
Behind the donation, there is also a personal story. Liset also went through cancer treatment, and the vials became available after her medical process. Now recovered, she decided they could be used to give someone else a chance to continue their treatment.
The story was shared by journalist and activist Yaudel Rodríguez Vento, who had posted on Facebook days earlier the plea from Leidi to obtain the medication her father needed.
The request began to mobilize several people until José Luis and Liset's message appeared.
Rodríguez Vento traveled personally to Pedro Betancourt to collect the medications, with the support of three others identified as Odalis, Yunieski, and Yoli, and announced that they would be delivered to the family as soon as possible.
"Today I have in my hands those medications, a part of the treatment that Leidi Ramírez's father needs. In a few hours, I will deliver them, because when someone is waiting for medication to confront an illness, every hour counts," he wrote.
"There are still good people left in this world."
Leidi's reaction revealed the significance that the assistance had for a family that had been searching for a solution for days.
"My God, I have no words to express what I’m feeling. I am the desperate daughter and I don’t know what to say; I only know that there are still good people in this world. Here I am, in pure tears for witnessing so much humanity," she commented on the post.
Rodríguez Vento mentioned that José Luis and Liset have been married for 40 years and met during school in the countryside. He described them as "authentic rural folks, people with a good, transparent, and noble soul."
A nephew of the couple also reacted to the story and stated that those who know them were not surprised by their decision.
"My uncle José and my aunt Liseth, noble and enterprising people who have never given what they have left over, have given everything," he wrote.
The gesture takes on even greater significance given the value that oncological medications have reached amid the severe shortages plaguing the Cuban healthcare system. At the prices mentioned in the publication, the three vials would amount to around 390 dollars, a very high sum for most families on the island.
But for José Luis and Liset, their value was measured in a different way: they were medications that had been part of her fight against cancer and could now help another person confront the same disease.
Searching for medicines on social media
The case once again highlights an increasingly common reality in Cuba: families forced to turn to Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms to locate medication that they cannot find in hospitals and pharmacies.
Cisplatin is among the chemotherapeutic agents whose shortage has been acknowledged by the Cuban authorities for years, within a much broader deficit of essential medications.
The crisis reached particularly severe levels in 2026. In July, the management of BioCubaFarma acknowledged the difficulties in ensuring the supply of nearly 300 out of the 395 medications that the industry was supposed to provide to the National Health System.
In August, Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged that only about 30% of the essential medications were available, a particularly critical situation for those suffering from illnesses requiring continuous treatment.
The shortage takes on even more dramatic consequences for cancer patients, for whom a delay in obtaining a medication can mean the interruption or postponement of treatment cycles.
In that void, informal solidarity networks have emerged, where family members, friends, emigrants, and strangers seek, purchase, or donate medications.
A commentator recounted that just a month earlier, her family needed to gather around 2,000 dollars to obtain medication for a 13-year-old cousin in Camagüey. According to her testimony, each box cost about 400 dollars, and the money was raised in just three hours thanks to a support network organized on social media.
"Those chemotherapy drugs are lost, and when you find them, they are very expensive," summarized another user.
Stories like Leidi's reveal the human face of a health crisis where obtaining medication increasingly depends on having money, relatives abroad, or the fortunate chance that a request reaches someone willing to help.
This time, the request reached a couple from Matanzas who knew firsthand what it meant to confront cancer.
Rodríguez Vento summarized José Luis and Liset's gesture with a phrase that ultimately became the heart of the story:
"They didn't give away something they had in surplus. They offered something that could mean a lot to them. They gave a hope."
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