Catalonia mobilizes for La Marató: more than €10 millions for cancer research

By Biocat

La Marató de TV3 has achieved new success in social mobilization and raised an important amount of money for cancer research: €10,113,152. This is the amount that was on the board when journalists Ariadna Oltra and Òscar Dalmau closed the program yesterday at 1:25 am, beating the previous record set at last year’s edition by nearly €3 millions. This figure is still provisional, as those interested can continue to make donations through 31 March 2013.

This year also beat the record for popular participation, with more than 2,000 activities organized through grassroots initiatives, and 2,400 volunteers, including renowned figures from the cultural, social, sports, political and business spheres including Miquel Barceló, Andrés Iniesta, Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, Joel Joan, Justo Molinero, and Coco Comín, among many others.

The funds raised by La Marató 2012 will go directly to the study of personalized medicine for cancer, funding research projects. In February 2013, the La Marató de TV3 Foundation will open a call for proposals geared towards expert researchers in this field. The exact date will be announced in the media and on their website http://www.tv3.cat/marato/.

15 hours of information, awareness raising and entertainment

With this edition, there have now been four marathons devoted to cancer, in 1992, 1994 and 2004. This program, broadcast on TV3, showed how oncology research has evolved over these years and featured some thirty doctors, patients and hosts from previous years. La Marató 2012 brought the audience information regarding cancer from all aspects: scientific, human and social. The presentations from doctors and researchers and awareness-raising actions on stage explained concepts like the mechanisms of the disease, metastasis and existing therapies.

You can follow La Marató de TV3 on Twitter using the tags #MaratóCàncer and #MaratóTV3.

Related news 2011 edition (6/2/2012)