This year, more than one hundred contracts were signed for events in Ardèche for the Telethon. It’s a record. A renewed healthy mobilization as the organizers try to erase the drop in donations in 2020, in full confinement.
The 35th edition of the Telethon takes place on December 3 and 4. Despite the marginal cancellation of some events due to Covid-19, the organizers hope to find some color. Last year, donations fell by 10 million euros in full containment even if they were more or less maintained in Drôme and Ardèche.
In the Drôme, the coordinator of the North sector, Dominique Desbos notes a remobilization: “Compared to 2020 we are at 155 more events, and about fifty more compared to 2019”. On his sector, Dominique Desbos hopes to reach 185,000 euros this year.
Beyond the sum, it is of course the hope of finding treatments to treat or even cure people suffering from rare diseases. Karine Fombonne, member of the coordination of Ardèche, suffering from a myopathy of the girdles was finally able to make a complete diagnosis of her disease this year and could benefit from gene therapy in two years.
But Telethon research, it is often forgotten, also benefits everyone. Advances in vision make it possible to better treat AMD, which affects nearly 15% of French people over the age of 80. Research on messenger RNA, funded for years in part by the AFM-Telethon, has made it possible to manufacture the vaccine against Covid-19 in record time.
Hence the importance of donating either by phone to 3637, or on the telethon.fr site, or during events in the field that you find by clicking here.