The illuminated towers in several cities such as Grenoble, Marseille, Rouen, Nantes and Paris will remain as the strong symbols of this 2015 edition of the traditional Telethon. This year, this solidarity campaign sponsored by singer Marc Lavoine made it possible to display more than 80.25 million pledges on the counter. A sign that the generosity of the French is more than ever at the rendezvous a few weeks after the attacks in Paris.
The money raised helps support the AFM-Téléthon association and its fight against rare diseases that affect three million people in France.
The 2015 edition totals for the moment a lower sum than the 2014 edition during which the AFM-Telethon had managed to collect 92.9 million euros (against 89.3 million euros in 2013).
There are 6,000 to 8,000 rare diseases. But contrary to popular belief, the Telethon helps fund clinical trials that do not only concern rare diseases of neuromuscular origin: 60% of the scientific budget of the AFM-Telethon is intended for clinical trials for rare non-neuromuscular diseases.
230 research programs
The AFM-Téléthon also finances the Généthon, a laboratory dedicated to research on genetic diseases (80% of rare diseases). Concretely, donations help finance 230 research programs. In particular, this year the association is supporting 37 therapeutic trials in progress or in development (gene or cell therapy, etc.) on around thirty diseases of the blood, brain, muscles, liver, eyesight and heart.
Until December 11 you can continue to donate on telethon.fr and by phone: 3637
>> To read also: Telethon: the French more generous in 2014 than in 2013
Telethon: we no longer stop gene therapy
Telethon: a new research laboratory against myopathies
