The Walk for Life Foundation has moved to new headquarters on Avenida Ayyo (Nº 75) in Adeje, in a completely open-plan premises with a usable area of 278 m2 meaning they will be able to help even more people than before. the new Pink Room was officially opened yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) in the presence of volunteers, the authorities, and members of the public.
At the opening ceremony, the mayor of Adeje, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga, said that “We are taking another step forward in this part of the island, a part that has been abandoned for centuries. It is good to know that now there is a door you can knock on and find people who have been through something similar, who know. People who help us to come to terms with the tough challenges that life brings us.”
“This is a solidarity space, open to the people of South Tenerife, forming part of the facilities on offer to help those in need to live a better life, and above all to help those people who are in difficulty. This is an important step forward - we have already moved from a small Pink Room, and we’re not stopping our progression”.
The president of the organisation, Brigitte Gypen, stated that "it was very important and essential to us that the Foundation’s HQ would stay in Adeje where we will continue to promote actions aimed at improving the health and quality of life of people with cancer and their families."
She added that "starting from May 8th, the Walk for Life Foundation will organise open days to showcase the different services we offer. These sessions will be aimed at everyone who needs information about the Foundation's resources."
Also present at the opening of the new space were local politicians from Tenerife south councils, the Tenerife Cabildo councillor for social action, representatives of the Rotary Club, Cit del Sur, CEST, and FAST.
The new space, a municipal property, is fully equipped to accommodate all the services provided by the Foundation, including changing rooms, storage room, toilets, office space, library, a meeting and conference room, as well as a multipurpose hall.
Up until April of this year, the Foundation was located in the Adeje Citizen Participation and Coexistence building, but with the increased provision of services there was a need to move to a bigger space which the council have been happy to facilitate.
Adeje council’s department of health, under councillor Esther Rivero Vargas, has been working with the Walk for Life Foundation for 19 years, and is involved in various projects designed to improve the well-being of people with cancer, allocating a grant of 17,000 euros per year.
The organisation will offer the same services at its new headquarters, providing information, advice, meetings, training activities, creative workshops, and other actions designed to assist people with cancer, especially breast cancer. They will also provide support to people affected by breast cancer and their families through training and information forums with professionals, creating meeting and coexistence spaces among peers, and providing assistance through the delivery of therapeutic materials.
Among other things, they will continue to raise awareness in society about breast cancer, the importance of early detection, and promote breast self-examination, and stress the role early and regular appointments with medical practitioners play in that early detection.
One of the key actions of this foundation is the collaboration and financial support for research teams and studies on breast cancer, as well as projects and initiatives of other institutions, foundations, and associations that improve the quality of life of people affected by breast cancer and other types of cancer.
Carrera por la Vida Projects:
The Walk for Life Foundation subsidises important projects such as: the BRA Project, providing personalised and therapeutic bras for patients who have undergone a mastectomy; the LINFA Project, purchasing lymphatic sleeves for people with lymphedema; the Goodbag, free delivery of bags for comfortable and safe drainage transport for individuals undergoing breast cancer surgery; Solidarity Areolas, financing for micropigmentation for the aesthetic recovery of the breast after a mastectomy that involves areola removal.
The Foundation also donates money to the development of research studies, for example, with FERO Hospital CLINIC Barcelona, for the development of the research project on the adoptive transfer of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes TILS.
They also fund research at the University Clinic of Navarra in Madrid for the team working on a project to avoid sentinel lymph node biopsy and thus reduce the risk of lymphedema. More funds go to the CONTIGO Foundation, financing the Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer research project. And the Foundation donates money to the INVI Association, to develop the oncological research project on breast cancer in men promoted by the GEICAM Research Group.
The Walk for Life Foundation also collaborates with the Spanish Association Against Cancer - AECC, provincial headquarters of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with an economic contribution for the transportation service for people with cancer residing in the South of Tenerife.
