To crown 60 years of activity in favor of cancer research, AIRC Foundation received the Ambrogino d’Oro, the prestigious Civic Merit awarded by the Municipality of Milan and named after the patron saint of the city.
The recognition is awarded every year to people, associations and entities that have distinguished themselves for their commitment to the Milanese community, contributing significantly to the social, cultural and economic growth of the city. This is the motivation for the Award:
“When he was born in Milan, in 1965, he inserted a then unpronounceable word into his name, starting a challenge in the name of science. It represents a point of reference in the promotion and financing of independent research, allocating two and a half billion euros to it and leading to the discovery of innovative knowledge and therapies that increase the number of healthy people ten years after a diagnosis. Thanks to the trust of millions of supporters and the commitment of twenty thousand volunteers, it supports the work of the scientific community by rigorously choosing the projects and scholarships to finance. From Milan, the beating heart of its activities, is committed to spreading the culture of health and prevention as much as possible in the schools and squares of the country, promoting events and awareness campaigns that have now become familiar to all Italians”.
The award was received by Andrea Sironi, President of the AIRC Foundation, who commented: «This recognition from the Municipality of Milan has a profound meaning for us: it is here that, sixty years ago, the AIRC Foundation was born thanks to the vision of pioneers such as Giuseppe Della Porta and Umberto Veronesi, whose centenary of birth we are celebrating this year. From that intuition was born lhe first non-profit organization in Italy dedicated exclusively to funding cancer research, supported by the generosity of citizens. Milan is still the beating heart of our mission today. In six decades, AIRC has become the backbone of independent and competitive cancer research in the country, to which it has allocated, so far, over 2.5 billion. It has managed to build a network that combines science, dissemination and civic participation, supporting thousands of researchers and investing resources to make cancer increasingly curable. This Merit is not only a tribute to AIRC, but to the entire community that believes in research and contributes every day to the common good».
