Ángel Hernández, the man who helped his wife, María José Carrasco, die in April 2019, has decided to donate the 300,000 euros of the inheritance to the M1 Multiple Sclerosis Project Spain, a pioneering initiative launched by patients to boost Research on this disease, which despite not being deadly, highly conditions the lives of patients.
"She already had symptoms of something, but we didn't know what it was," said Hernandez. In 1989 they named him, they told my wife he had multiple sclerosis. We were very interested in following what was being investigated, and what had been discovered so far. And we saw that for multiple sclerosis in this variant that María José (progressive primary) had, there was nothing, "he lamented.
Project M1, promoted by Multiple Sclerosis Spain in 2013, is an initiative of the patients themselves to respond to Hernández's same demand: the urgent need to investigate the progressive forms of the disease, for which there are hardly any treatments that allow slow down or slow your progress.
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Pedro Carrascal, director of Multiple Sclerosis Spain, has stressed the need to finance the studies: "For us it was clear that for the forms that occur to outbreaks there were many therapeutic options, and increasingly effective. And, nevertheless, the people who had progressive forms were helpless, there was nothing for them. This was what led us to roll up our sleeves and start looking for funds to finance their research. Now, seven years later, we are helping to boost some of the most important research projects of the world".
Thanks to Hernández's donation, the M1 Project and the Spanish Multiple Sclerosis Network (REEM) have launched the María José Carrasco Motos Call for Excellence Projects, which may be attended by scientific teams from the network. The evaluation committee will select the three best research projects; They will receive 100,000 euros to develop their studies.
This year 500,000 euros will be distributed to boost research through national and international calls. Of that amount, 55,000 euros will go to international projects through the International Progressive MS Alliance. In addition, in Spain the REEM will receive 445,000 euros.
"Our network, despite being made up of researchers with great international prestige, barely has 10% of the financing of other similar networks in France or Germany," explains Luisa María Villar Guimerans, coordinator of the REEM and head of the Immunology Service of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid. "We receive these funds from patients with great gratitude and great responsibility," he concluded.