GIRONA“Girona has given me everything and being part of a project like this is like returning all the love that the territory has given me over the years. Being the godfather of an initiative like this makes me feel a privileged and fills me with pride, because there are people going through very hard times.” These are the words of Cristhian Stuani, the visible face of the Stories of solidarity from sport in Girona The Uruguayan striker, who scored all three points in the last victory against Athletic and is preparing to host Real Sociedad this Saturday (6:30 p.m., Movistar), has been involved in the first person, on the arm of Girona, with the Enriqueta Villavecchia Children’s Oncology Foundation, the beneficiary of the collection made in the nineteenth edition of what began as an adventure and a book by a group of 40 journalists and which has already collected more than a million euros.
“It is necessary to put a taboo subject on the table: there are children who are not cured and we must help them so that they continue to be children”, explains Anna Varderi, manager of a Foundation that has turned 35 and will rebuild a of the Hospital de Sant Pau pavilions so that it is the first day center in Catalonia that cares for children suffering from cancer and other irreversible diseases in their last days of life. “A place to take care of life”, they say, to “facilitate moments of respite, rest, leisure, play and family support, and a suitable space to accompany them”.
Stuani is the father of two children and can’t even imagine the pain the affected families are going through. “When they explained it to me and conveyed their values to me, I made myself available to them from the first second. It is very human and it moves me, because these are the beautiful things in life. So much for Girona as for me, helping others is important,” he says. In Barcelona, the godfather is also Uruguayan Ronald Araujo. The book, on sale at Corte Inglés, which markets them altruistically, costs 15 euros, all of which will go entirely to the Foundation. Last week a charity dinner was organized in Girona where money continued to be collected for the cause.
The story of Mikel
Sota the music of pathsfrom Sopa de Cabra, the Foundation, Girona and the forward made known the story of Mikel, a 12-year-old boy with cancer who dreamed of being a footballer for Girona. Said and done, then. “We lived a very special moment”, says Stuani, who invited Mikel to Montilivi to spend a day with him. In a rather emotional video, the shirts of both, with the corresponding numbers 7, are seen hanging in the dressing room, where they change before jumping on the grass and playing football. The Uruguayan also puts the captain’s armband on him. “Helping seriously ill children is a win for everyone,” says the slogan.
“References like Stuani are very necessary to involve the social fabric that we represent”, comments Josep Maria González, regional director of CaixaBank, who is in charge of publishing the books and assuming the printing costs. The Foundation recalls that “about 400 families will be able to benefit annually, many of them in a situation of social or economic vulnerability, prior to the illness of the sick child or as a result of it”. “And we won’t stop until we get it,” concludes Varderi.
Source: www.ara.cat
