Kilian Jornet and Ricky Rubio join forces to fight lung cancer

BadalonaQuarter past nine in the morning. A group of people are a few meters from Can Ruti, in Badalona, at the start of a small path that leads into a wooded area. A different Badalona, rural, with vegetable gardens and places where wine is still made, like in Vall de Betlem. The nearly forty people who have met here will begin a walk towards the beautiful monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Murtra. And to start, they pass by two flags with the names of two of the country's best athletes: Ricky Rubio and Kilian Jornet.

The Kilian Jornet Foundation and the Ricky Rubio Foundation have teamed up, joining forces, to lead this initiative under the name Running Minds, which aims to raise awareness about the effects of pollution on health, especially lung cancer. Today it was about helping patients battling this disease and seeing how contact with nature helps them. Helping people with an illness and, incidentally, helping nature. A winning play.

"The Running Minds project is an initiative based on community runs that combines the passion for running and appreciation for nature. Kilian has always wanted to warn about the dangers affecting the environment. And the foundation wants many people who don't usually go to the mountains to be able to go there to love it and for the benefits it will bring to those who do. This project consists of organizing outings inviting experts on a topic who explain information during stops along the route," says Anna González, from the Kilian Jornet Foundation. And this outing is made by joining forces with the Penya player's foundation, which "after his mother's death in 2016 from cancer, works to improve the conditions of lung cancer patients and help in research," explained Vidal Sabater, from the Ricky Rubio Foundation, before the meeting. A meeting where one could go running or walking. The key issue was to do sports.

The role of sport

And help raise awareness about a disease that can affect everyone. Not just smokers. "The scientific community has detected an increase in cases of lung cancer in women around forty years old who have not been smokers, a fact that is associated with exposure to polluting particles and radon gas. This reality highlights the need to improve the ventilation of homes and their environmental conditions, although the risk does not disappear completely," adds Sabater, while the participants warm up. These are patients and their families, who have completed the route accompanied by oncologist Enric Carcereny and ISGlobal researchers. "At the foundation, we are carrying out a project called LungFit,which promotes physical exercise with lung cancer patients. Exercise that can be individual or group, to see what effects physical exercise has on people. To regain the ability to breathe or muscle mass. And especially, to be able to research," adds Sabater.

The doctor Carcereny, during one of the stops of the day, recalled that "physical exercise helps all sick people, including cancer patients. On the other hand, there is no miracle diet, although taking care of it is always important," and added that "what we know about lung cancer has changed." "We have many cases not related to tobacco. Each case is different," said the doctor. The patients, each with a history and diagnosis, have followed the route together, united, supporting each other, and also learning about the dangers facing nature, affected by pollution that often is also the enemy of our lungs. It was about overcoming the fear of doing things when you are sick and having a positive attitude, thanks to the great work of the foundations of two athletes who have decided they want to help, in addition to competing. And to do so in a beautiful mountain setting next to Can Ruti, the hospital where cancer is researched and fought.