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The breast milk bank of the Region of Murcia recently celebrated its five year anniversary. The bank, which boasts three locations in Murcia, Cartagena, and Lorca, has helped more than 700 newborn babies, and has launched a new website for an initiative that provides useful content for families, developed by professionals.

Nearly 700 kindhearted donors help vulnerable newborns in the Region of Murcia

To be exact, 733 newborns, mostly premature newborns, have benefited from the regional breast milk bank. Over its five years of existence, 668 women have donated breast milk for the cause. This has established the regional bank as an essential resource for neonatal care in the Region of Murcia.

Nearly 4,000 litres of breast milk donated and sent to different areas in Murcia

According to the Minister of Health of the Region of Murcia, Juan José Pedreño, some 3,750 litres of breast milk have been collected over the past five years. This milk is then pasteurised, and distributed to neonatal units all across the Region, including in the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital in Murcia, the Santa Lucía Hospital in Cartagena, and the Rafael Méndez Hospital in Lorca, proportional with the orders placed.

Celebrating generous breast milk donors and support groups

This anniversary was as much about celebrating the generosity of the donors as it was about the five successful years of the breast milk bank. In the Region of Murcia, there were 109 active donors in 2026, who contributed 284 litres of milk and directly improved the care and survival of nearly 60 vulnerable newborn babies.

The kindness of the donors cannot be overstated, from mothers who have surplus milk to those who want to use it for charitable purposes, as well as those who have experienced the reality of caring for a child with a shortage of breast milk. Breastfeeding support groups, with outreach work, have also helped to gain more donors for the breast milk bank.

The ‘First 1,000 Days’: An initiative to help overwhelmed new parents

The bank’s new initiative, called “The First 1,000 Days of Life and Beyond,” provides expert care for families with newborns, developed by experienced professionals. This programme supports families with children, from pregnancy to age 14. Those interested in the content can access downloadable information, audiovisual resources, and links to helpful external sources endorsed by national and international experts on the subject of caring for a child. A new website for the initiative, which will be updated regularly, was unveiled at the anniversary ceremony.

The Region of Murcia’s breast milk bank was already one of the top six nationally ranked breast milk banks just a year after beginning its operations in March 2021, both in number of donors and volume of pasteurised milk collected.

A new Mercadona location will open in Cabo de Palos in June, transferring around fifty workers to the new facilities and allowing shoppers more flexibility, with a larger facility that will be able to handle more people and more products.

A new, larger location for shoppers to browse

The new supermarket is due to open its doors on Monday, June 1, as established in a meeting between the mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo, and the company’s Director of External Relations in the Region of Murcia, Ana Belén Martínez. The new location represents an important investment not only for the municipality of Cartagena, but for Cabo de Palos in particular, and will allow the area to generate more employment and new economic opportunities.

This new Mercadona boasts a three-storey building, occupying a surface area of more than 13,000 square metres. The revamped site features expanded parking with hundreds of spaces, alongside new commercial units, a large basement layout, and a self-service station. It forms part of the regeneration of the Las Dunas Cabo de Palos shopping area.

New supermarket to open just ahead of peak season, amping up nearby commercial activity

The timing of the project is also significant, opening right on schedule and right at the beginning of peak season. The Mercadona is expected to revitalise all the commercial activity for the surrounding area. In addition, the new supermarket will be close to the Cabo de Palos weekly market, which will complement each other and allow for growth for both establishments.

Spain’s biggest supermarket, now closer to the people of Cabo de Palos

The new Mercadona supermarket represents an investment of some €5.2 million, and will replace the existing Cabo de Palos supermarket, which was previously the only one in the area.

Mercadona is widely considered Spain’s biggest supermarket chain, with its most recent figures representing a total turnover of about €41.9 billion, up 8 per cent year on year. By the numbers, this represents around €39.8 billion from sales in Spain, and just over €2 billion from Portugal.