Charity recital of Josep Carreras in the Liceu (Barcelona) for the fight against leukemia

With the goal to rise founds for the fight against leukemia, Josep Carreras, accompanied in piano by Maestro Lorenzo Bavaj and by the Nuovo Quartteto Italiano, carried out the last 27th of September a charity recital in the Liceu, Barcelona. To celebrate their 50 years, the IESE Business School (University of Navarra) has sponsorised this charity night.

This recital has introduced the acts for the 50 anniversary of the IESE.  More than 2 .000 bussinessmen attended the 46th edition of the IESE Ancient Students Assembly.  

With recitals like these, the Josep Carreras Foundation can continue carrying out its tasks: to foment scientific research, to find bone marrow donors for the patients who do not have compatible relative, to provide hospital infrastructure’s and to serve social to the families without economic resources.  All this to reach its goal: to make leukemia a curable disease in all cases. During 2007, Josep Carreras offered charity recitals in different emblematic places like Palma de Mallorca’s Cathedral, Plaisterer’s Hall in Londres or the Megaron Hall of Athens.

Leukaemia and Foundation

Leukemia is a type of cancer. The word cancer covers more than 100 disorders that have two important characteristics in common. The first is that some cells in the human body become anomalous. The second is that the body starts to produce large amounts of these anomalous cells.

Leukemia is an erratic multiplication of anomalous stem cells in the blood. These anomalous cells infiltrate the bone marrow and hold back the growth of normal stem cells, invading the blood and other organs.

There are various types of leukemia, which can be classified in two ways: according to how fast the illness develops or the type of blood cell that is affected: acute ones or chronic ones.

Even leukemia can affect adults an children, it is the most frequent cancer among children: 70% of children’s cancers are leukemias.

Each year 4.000 persons in Spain receive a hard diagnose: leukaemia. Despite recovery rates have increased a lot in the last years due to scientific progress; we still lose 30% of children and 50% of adults. Unfortunately, only 1 of 4 patients has a relative donor compatible. The rest has to find a donor through the Bone Marrow Registry. REDMO is the program responsible for the promotion and search of volunteer bone marrow donors in Spain. Until now, the Josep Carreras Foundation has found a compatible donor for more than 2.000 patients, this has allow more than 1.000 bone marrow transplants. This success has been possible because of the solidarity of more than 11 million volunteer donors around the world, more than 60.000 Spanish.