“A true story.” That of the journey of a person with cancer, like 3.8 million French people, but also like Santa Claus, who the disease did not spare. Thus begins the video of Gustave-Roussy, the first cancer center in Europe, which is launching a donation campaign this Monday, December 18. If medical research remains the primary beneficiary of the generosity of citizens, it is not spared from the consequences of inflation. In 2023, the French donated an average of 9 euros less than in 2022, according to an Odoxa barometer for Leetchi published in October.
At the Gustave-Roussy Hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), the observed decline is 10%. “Donations from individuals represent a third of our private resources. When they decrease, it alerts us because it risks putting major research projects in danger,” warns Perrine de Longevialle, brand and philanthropy director. Same concern at the Curie Institute in Paris, which records a 7% decrease in the number of donors and an 8% decrease in the amount of money collected.
To raise awareness among the French, Gustave-Roussy will broadcast a two-minute video on television from December 20. The clip was offered by Publicis, at the initiative of its CEO, Arthur Sadoun, who in January broke the taboo of illness at work by revealing that he had throat cancer. The choice of the lead role fell on Santa Claus, “a way of saying that everyone is concerned,” explains Perrine de Longevialle. The film will also appear in cinemas in January, and a longer version (five minutes) will be posted on YouTube.
Message of hope
It shows the Belgian actor Johan Heldenbergh, with graying beard and curly hair, collapsing as he cuts wood in the middle of the forest. The shock of the diagnosis, the tears of his daughter, played by Billie Blain (“The Animal Kingdom”), chemotherapy, fear, fatigue, support, moments of joy… Rocked by a cover of the song “Atmosphere” (Joy Division), the journey of the sick Santa Claus is delicately retraced. Until his recovery.
It is a message of hope that the institute wants to convey. “Today we have more chance of curing cancer than dying from it,” reminds Fabrice Barlesi, professor of medicine at the University of Paris-Saclay and general director of Gustave-Roussy. “Nearly 450,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, compared to 142,000 deaths, we can talk about two-thirds of patients who recover.”
But deaths are still too numerous. “Despite the colossal progress that has been made, with accelerated discoveries in the biology and immunology of cancer, there are still patients in more difficult situations or subgroups for which specific efforts need to be made,” adds the specialist, who calls for “more resources.”
10,000 euros, that’s a complete tumor sequencing
At Gustave-Roussy, as at the Curie Institute, donations from individuals represent a third of the annual private resources allocated to research. A collection of 10,000 euros, “is the ability to fully sequence a tumor in a child,” explains Fabrice Barlesi. 50,000 euros? “The annual salary of a researcher in our laboratories.” 500,000 euros? “An ultra-modern equipment that we can make available to researchers to make enormous progress.” And the center’s director insists: “All these donations have a strong societal impact.”
Philippe, 67, can testify to this. This resident of Seine-et-Marne narrowly avoided the development of cancer. In 2022, while accompanying his wife to Gustave-Roussy, where she is being treated, he is offered to participate in a screening day, as part of a new program that relies on hospital-outpatient medicine collaboration. The oncologist then discovers a cancerous nodule in his lung. The former smoker enters the program. He is quickly operated on and undergoes regular control scans. In March, the doctors find a growth on the wall of his bladder and remove it a few months later. The analysis will show that it was a polyp at high risk of cancer. “If I hadn’t had these operations…,” says Philippe, leaving his sentence incomplete.
This program, called Interception, aims to “identify at the earliest opportunity individuals at increased risk of cancer in order to offer them personalized prevention.” If it was launched in 2021, it is thanks in part to donations from individuals.
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2023-12-17 20:25:00
