the fund in his memory will finance research into bile duct cancer

The Clémentine Vergnaud Fund against cholangiocarcinoma and the Association for the study of cancers and affections of the biliary tract (Acabi) will launch in 2025 a thesis scholarship financed by donations made in the name of the franceinfo journalist, who died in 2023 in the age of 31.

Objective: a thesis every two years. The Clémentine Vergnaud Fund against cholangiocarcinoma, opened in the name of Clémentine Vergnaud, journalist at franceinfo, who died on December 23, 2023 from a rare form of bile duct cancer at the age of 31, made it possible to raise a little more than 130,000 euros. HAS she alone, the prize pool opened in her name had exceeded 100,000 euros by June 2024. A sum which will make it possible to finance a first research thesis from 2025 and for three years.

Applications for this research grant will be opened on February 6, 2025, on the occasion of the Immunity and Cancer Scientific Days. “We leave the subject as open as possible, but it will be a thesis on cholangiocarcinoma or, in any case, cancers of the bile ducts”explains Grégoire Lecalot, husband of Clémentine Vergnaud and journalist at franceinfo.

He claims a “vendetta” against the rare disease which took away his wife, as it comes out on Friday October 4 Clementine’s Diary (Threshold), adapted from the podcast “My life facing cancer” by Clémentine Vergnaud. The book, signed posthumously by the young journalist, takes up the first-person account of a fight of nearly a year and a half against the disease.

Next step, therefore, is the opening of applications for this scholarship. “We will then meet next summer with the Association for the Study of Cancers and Bile Tract Diseases (Acabi) to decide which application to accept, and funding will begin in November”continues Grégoire Lecalot. He now hopes that this Fund, which he officially created in February 2024 with other relatives of Clémentine Vergnaud, will make it possible to finance a thesis every two years.

“The second seems within reach”he confides. Profits linked to the sale of the book Clementine’s Diary will in fact be entirely repaid to the Fund in his name. And his loved ones can hope for a boost in donations thanks to the publication of the work, in the same way that the podcast, with more than two million listens, boosted the fund created on the day of his funeral.

This remains open until the end of the year, then donations must be sent by check directly to the Clémentine Vergnaud Fund against Cholangiocarcinoma, pending the upcoming creation of a dedicated website.