Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Bulgaria is the first country in the world to have a street named after a donor

Photo: dokumentalisti.bg

The first street in the world that bears the name of a donor who saved four human lives can be found in Bulgaria’s coastal city Varna. The place reminds us of the last, extremely valuable gift that a person can make in their earthly path.

The street is called "Georgi Nikolov" and it is in the Asparuhovo district of Varna. The renaming of the existing street with the name of a donor is an initiative of citizens and the creators of "The Last Gift of Man" project, which aims to raise awareness of organ donation in Bulgaria.

Life after the end

Georgi Nikolov was a young man from Varna, who on September 20, 2015, remained forever at the age of 21, yet he made it possible that 4 other lives would continue by becoming a donor. A university student abroad, with a sharp mind and a bright future, Georgi had no serious health problems and there was no way of knowing that an insidious brain aneurysm in his head was about to burst and end his life. Aneurysms have no explainable medical cause or symptoms, and in George's case it was no more than bad chance. However, he gave four people a chance for life, which made him a hero, and thus inspired the innovative idea of naming a street after him.

Organ donation in Bulgaria

There are only 13 realized donor situations in Bulgaria in 2022, and the list of persons waiting for donation has nearly 1,000, which places Bulgaria in the queue in the European Union in terms of the number of transplants. People familiar with the matter estimate that if current rates continue, it will take more than 20 years to transplant all those waiting to date.

The story of Georgi Nikolov and of organ donation in Bulgaria is told in the multimedia project "The Last Gift of Man". In order for it to be implemented, its authors Alexander Nikolov and Dimitar Panayotov held over 100 meetings with doctors, patients and families of donors in more than 15 towns. They filmed in 8 hospitals, attended three transplants and witnessed one donor situation.


Read also:



Compiled by Elena Karkalanova


Translated and published by Rositsa Petkova



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

The photo is illustrative

The highest concentration of microplastics along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is found in the Bay of Sozopol

The highest concentration of microplastics along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is found in the Bay of Sozopol, according to a study by the Laboratory of Marine Ecology in Sozopol published in the international journal Marine Pollution Bulletin...

published on 10/29/24 9:55 AM

Rayna Mandjoukova: The war should not divide the Bessarabian-Bulgarian community in Ukraine and Moldova

The Bessarabian Bulgarians are "an integral part of the Bulgarian national body, of the Bulgarian spiritual and cultural community, and they will always be, because the bond between us and them is unbreakable" - wrote the only issue of the newspaper..

published on 10/29/24 8:25 AM

The election is over, when will the next election be?

Voting by force of habit. Voting with the last ounce of hope that tomorrow everything will be all right and we shall only be talking to each other about elections in four years’ time. Voting with a sense of bitterness – at politicians, at our own..

updated on 10/28/24 2:38 PM