Mother of sick child raises funds to pay redundant researcher

Cristina Ponce's daughter has diabetes and her efforts have sparked a campaign to collect funds in support of research against the disease. Thanks to 7,700 euros gathered in little more than six months from, among other things, bake sales, t-shirts and lottery tickets, the campaign last November paid for researcher Silvia Sanz to be reinstated in her job at the Valencia-based Prince Felipe Research Center (CIPF). The institution, one of the top five in the country, suffered large-scale downsizing last year when 114 employees, including Sanz, were laid off under labor readjustment plan (ERE) regulations.

"It is the only thing I can do to find a cure for my daughter," said Ponce of the reinstatement of Sanz, who specializes in the study of the pancreas and is part of a project exploring the regulation of proliferating pancreatic beta cells, which regulate insulin. The research was left at a standstill when the center was shorn of the large number of employees. Now, Sanz can finally pick up where she left off.

"This research will determine whether or not my daughter will become blind"

Ponce started the Paula Project (named after her daughter) last year and dedicated it to supporting the studies and to gaining a better understanding of the disease and how to fight it. From there, she forged an agreement with administrators from the Valencia center to invest private funds into the CIPF.

Ponce was very critical of the downsizing. She expressed her dissatisfaction in a meeting between leaders from the Health Ministry: "The success of the research will determine whether or not my daughter will become blind or disabled. All of the money in the world must go to help these gentlemen [in reference to the researchers]."

She will do everything in her ability to make sure they do. Meanwhile, the CIPF is trying to move forward after the cuts suffered at the hands of the cash-strapped Valencia regional government.

Socialist eurodeputy Andrés Perelló has raised the matter of the cuts with the European Commission, which on Wednesday asked for more time to consider his complaint over the regional government's decision to cut funding to the CIPF. The Commission wished to study the case "in detail," Perelló said. The eurodeputy stated his belief that Brussels would ask Spanish authorities for information on the case and would investigate whether the funds designated by the EU for the CIPF had been used correctly.

"It is not acceptable that the European Union finances centers of excellence like the Prince Felipe and later allows governments with other priorities to dismantle them," Perelló said.

Government cutbacks amounting to some 600 million euros in research and development have also mobilized a petition to include a checkbox on tax return forms for charity gifts to science, like the one that allows citizens to donate cash to the Catholic Church. The petition has already garnered 47,000 signatures.