A Messi donation of €2.6 million is helping establish a major children’s cancer treatment centre in Barcelona, adding a significant contribution to the football star’s longstanding philanthropic work.
The funding is for the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center, a medical project, which has overall cost of around €30 million. It has a capacity of around 400 patients per year and will occupy an area of around 5,137 square metres.
The centre will be built as a hub for various services to treat and support children with cancer. The project strives to offer a more coordinated space for young patients and their families while in treatment, by centralizing specialist care. Messi is contributing to the development of the facility through his own Foundation, among various institutions, companies and individuals.
The Argentina captain is not just famous for his football career, he’s also known for his philanthropy efforts, which include healthcare. The Leo Messi Foundation has also been active in the field of education, sport and humanitarian causes around the globe.
In the field of health, it has sponsored research on childhood leukemia and donated to a hospital in Rosario, Messi’s birthplace in Argentina. The foundation has also been active in the area of child malnutrition in Mozambique. Sport continues to be an important aspect of their work. The foundation promotes social inclusion through football and other sporting events and activities, organising events, courses and community programmes and working to build and refurbish sports facilities.
In Argentina, these programs have involved the creation of projects that have contributed to schools and local communities sporting facilities. The Barcelona cancer centre is another important part of that more extensive charitable initiative, and in this case the project aims to enhance access to special paediatric oncology care.
Although Messi has had a successful career on the ball, his foundation has focused on providing resources for sport, health, education and humanitarian causes, and children and communities are always in the picture.
