The San Martín de la Arena Sports Club of Suances formalized this Tuesday at the Valdecilla Health Research Institute (IDIVAL) the donation of the 5,640 euros raised from the charity match held on April 25 between the club’s veteran team and Real Madrid Legends. The funds will be used to support the research activities of Cohorte Cantabria, the population-based research project led by IDIVAL.
The event was attended by Juan Antonio Rodríguez, promoter and coordinator of the initiative on behalf of San Martín Sports Club; Galo Peralta, managing director of IDIVAL; and Javier Crespo, scientific director of Cohorte Cantabria. They symbolically signed the handover of the funds and reflected on an initiative that brought together sports, solidarity, and health research.
An event that opens new opportunities
During the meeting, Rodríguez highlighted that organizing this match had been “a tremendous source of pride” for the club, as it allowed them to bring a leading scientific project closer to the entire Cantabrian community. He also acknowledged the enormous responsibility involved in carrying out an event of this scale, marked by complex logistics, numerous administrative requirements, and last-minute unforeseen issues that the team managed to overcome thanks to the commitment of everyone involved. He also expressed his sincere gratitude to Real Madrid Legends for their selfless support of Cohorte Cantabria, an innovative project for the future development of medicine.
The representative of SD San Martín described the match as “a very special event” for Suances and emphasized the excellent reception it received from both citizens and institutions. The event turned the municipality into the center of solidarity-driven sports during a historic day and provided great visibility for Cohorte Cantabria and the importance of health research.
The meeting also included an analysis of the lessons learned from organizing the event, among them the need to plan the search for sponsors further in advance and to make use of the experience gained for future charity initiatives of similar characteristics.
The impact achieved has also sparked interest from other organizations and municipalities. In this regard, the possibility of organizing new charity matches in collaboration with other historic clubs was discussed, with the aim of establishing a stable model of collaboration that continues to generate resources for biomedical research and brings science closer to the public.
Cohorte Cantabria is one of the most ambitious population-based research initiatives in southern Europe and already includes the participation of more than 50,000 people aged 40 to 70. The project studies the factors that influence the development of multiple diseases with the goal of improving prevention, diagnosis, and population health in the coming years.
For their part, IDIVAL and Cohorte Cantabria expressly thanked the commitment, effort, and intense work carried out by San Martín Sports Club to make this charity initiative possible, highlighting that the involvement of its organizers transformed a sports event into an action supporting biomedical research. They also emphasized the value of such initiatives in bringing Cohorte Cantabria closer to the public and continuing to promote a strategic scientific project for the future of health in Cantabria.
The donation marks the conclusion of an initiative that has demonstrated the potential of sports as a driver of social commitment and support for health research.
