What Jose Carreras has done for leukaemia research
mainSomeone has totted up the amounts raised by the tenor for research into the disease that almost took his life. In 1987, he was given a one in ten chance of survival.
Since then, Carreras has raised 220 million Euros in donations for research and financed some 1,200 projects. Leukaemia today is no longer the killer it was.
Carreras, 72, has been honoured wit Germany’s 2019 Science Foundation of the Year award.
Fantastic. Bless him!
Fantastic achievement
Good on him!
It’s a shame Valentini-Terrani died from the very same illness. I am so happy for Carreras.
Lucia Valentini-Terrani was same age as Carreras and was treated at the same Seattle hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center a decade later. Bless Carreras and remember her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koGdKTPpPX4
I just read at wikipedia that “a small square close to the Teatro Verdi in Padua, the city of her birth, has been named Piazzetta Lucia Valentini Terrani in her honour.” Very moving.
Lucia is a lovely lady – so friendly and warm and sunny – a veritable Italiana – it’s so sad that she passed away so suddenly. The Rossini Festival produced a tribute to her on DVD for the friends of the Festival and it can be viewed on Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXwlfI3ZVa4
What a class act.
And (to my knowledge) this was done without much fanfare at all. Even classier.
Bravo to him!
Bravo!! Greatest respect for this man. Saw one of his last performances as Don Jose in 1986 just before his diagnosis. He went through such hardship and survived to do good for future sufferers of this dreaded disease.
Superb legacy! He has been especially supportive of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle where he was treated.
An incredible singer, and an incredible man.
Good man.
Thank you Mr. Carreras for these gifts and your artistry. Thank you.
I had the immense pleasure of working with him on four tours. The first of these was in the third year after he left hospital and he was understandably nervous because his six-monthly check up was due the following week. Yet he sang his heart out at each performance, coming offstage near exhausted at the end. At one in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, two ladies came down to the stage during the intermission and laid 150 red roses along the front of the stage, a hugely touching gesture.
As another poster has pointed out, most of his fundraising activity and his many visits to clinics and leukaemia patients have been done in private. This is typical of a quiet, unassuming man who was an absolutely joy to work with and spend time with. Thank you for all these lovely memories and for all your leukaemia work, Jose.