The emotional video thanks to Messi for his involvement in childhood cancer

The famous gesture with which the player of FC Barcelona Leo Messi has held many of its goals, it symbolizes now, the fight against childhood cancer . In an emotional video posted by the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu you can see a child affected by the disease caressing her face with the index and middle fingers as a sign of appreciation to the player, maximum impeller of the Pediatric Center Barcelona (SJD).

The video mixes images of children afflicted by this disease, with others in which it can be seen how a colla of castellers raise a great tower human in front of the hospital. “At first I was a little scared. I thought that it was very difficult and never what we would get,” says the child who stars in the video, “but then you started to join people and more people, and everyone made so much force that it didn't matter if it was hard or if it had never been done before”.

With this encouraging message of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital wanted to give the thanks to both Messi and the rest from foundations, corporations and individuals that funded the new center of pediatric oncology, considered the largest in Europe. The Pediatric Center Barcelona began to be built last October with a cost of 30 million euros, amount that has already been achieved to raise.

The facility, which will occupy a total surface area of 13.196 square feet in a four-storey building annexed to the Sant Joan de Déu, is expected to open in the second half of 2020. The foundation of Lionel Messi is one of ten foundations that collaborate in this project that will allow the hospital to treat up to 400 patients per year, a figure 30% higher than the current one.

Presentation of the Pediatric Cancer Center, assisted by Leo Messi in the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu. (File)

The Sant Joan de Déu Hospital treats every year around 215 new cases of childhood cancer, and 70 more by relapses or second opinion. It is the hospital that most patients of this type is in Spain and ensures that its success rate is about 80% of the cases. The managing director of the hospital, Manel del Castillo, said that the new center “many families will be able to access treatments that on other occasions they are outside its scope”, as this will be “a center of all and for all, a centre of elite but not for the elite”.

in Addition to Messi, the Fundació fc barcelona, the Maria Angeles Recolons, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Fundacio Bancària La Caixa, AndBank, Esteve, Fundació Nou Mil•lenni, Grup Simm Imatge And are part of the list of foundations, businesses and individuals that support financially the construction of this installation, which will be funded also treatments to children without resources.

The Sant Joan de Déu has been reported that the citizens can continue to donate by calling the phone number 902 04 04 04, by bank transfer to the account ES97 2100 5000 5302 0015 9389 or via the project web page.

This new cancer center, children will be a reality in the second half of 2020