Paris Saint-Germain shares once-in-a-lifetime virtual experience with a young cancer patient in New York
BALTIMORE, MD | February 24, 2020 — Juan Ramirez spent his morning in Paris, France thanks to Paris Saint-Germain Football Club and some amazing virtual technology courtesy of the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation. After 70 days straight in a hospital room, the 14-year-old went on an exclusive virtual tour of Le Parc des Princes stadium, meeting all his favorite players from PSG along the way.
Juan, a native of Peru, fell ill during a family vacation to New York this past October. He was diagnosed with a recurrence of COVID-19–after previously falling ill with COVID in July–and Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare form of leukemia. Due to the serious nature of his condition, Juan was hospitalized at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in Bronx, New York where he will continue inpatient chemotherapy treatment for at least two more months.
“The Craig Willinger Fund has been providing once-in-a-lifetime experiences to travel to world-class soccer venues for the last ten years,” shared CWFund chairperson Emily Agueda. “When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, our travel program honoring critically ill soccer fans was indefinitely put on hold. We feel that the planets aligned to bring us Juan, a PSG fan going through great hardship, and specialized technology created specifically so that Paris Saint-Germain can enrich the lives of their most vulnerable fans. We are grateful to everyone involved who helped make Juan’s soccer dream come true.”
The Craig Willinger Fund, formed in 2009, seeks to improve the lives of children and young adults stricken with cancer by providing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience world-class soccer—both domestically and abroad. Since 2010, fourteen honorees have traveled to South Africa, Barcelona, Milan, London, Madrid, New York City, Kansas City, Manchester (UK), Leiceister (UK), and Brazil, including two World Cup tournaments and a UEFA Champions League Final.
The Paris Saint-Germain Foundation was founded in 2000 and was the first corporate foundation to be created by a French sports club. It provides support for vulnerable or sick children, young people and disadvantaged communities. When Nasser Al Khelaifi took over as president of the Foundation in 2012, he enabled it to step up its work and an endowment fund was created to receive donations. Over the last 20 years, more than 250,000 children and young adults have benefitted from the programs set up by the Foundation and / or the Paris Saint-Germain endowment fund. These two organizations run educational and sporting programs in France and abroad, using sport and its values to help youngsters to learn, blossom and become upstanding members of the community. Whether through their social and professional inclusion program, their ROUGE & BLEU Schools, their support for refugees or their donations to charities, Paris Saint-Germain draws on the educational and psychological benefits of sport to support sick or disadvantaged children.
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FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES CONTACT:
Craig Willinger Fund
Emily Agueda, Chairperson
+1.443.739.6875
emily@cwfund.org
Foundation Paris Saint-Germain
Laura Delort, Partnerships and Communications Manager
+33 (0)1 41 41 62 06 / +33 (0)6 21 23 44 82
ldelort@psg.fr