“Connecting Lives”: a call to support research and achieve a 70% cancer survival rate

The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) is presenting the “Connecting Lives” exhibition in Puerto del Rosario, an initiative designed to highlight the importance of financially supporting cancer research and contribute to the goal of exceeding a 70% survival rate by 2030.

Isabel Laucirica, president of the AECC’s island branch, told La Voz de Fuerteventura that the exhibition has already been shown in a range of public spaces, from schools and healthcare centres to airports, town councils and cultural centres, with the aim of reaching as many people as possible. “We want to reach everyone and make them aware of how important research is, and that advances in research reach patients,” she said.

€500,000 for cancer research in the Canary Islands

In 2025, the Spanish Association Against Cancer allocated a total of €500,000 to three research projects carried out in the Canary Islands. The funding came from Las Palmas province and included contributions from Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

Laucirica explained that 20% of the income raised through membership fees, fundraising activities, merchandise sales and donations goes directly towards funding scientific projects.

Across Spain, the association has invested more than €150 million in research projects involving over 3,000 researchers, she added.

One of the organisation’s priorities is to ensure that scientific studies can continue and are not halted because of a lack of funding.

“These studies are complete, I mean they start and finish; they don’t stop halfway through because of a lack of funding,” the president explained, insisting that “once the research begins, it is completed”.

New hope for cancers with the poorest prognosis

Some of the resources are devoted to research into cancers that are more difficult to treat or do not respond to available therapies. “There is a focus on tumours and treatments, on tumours with a poorer prognosis that do not respond to treatment,” the association’s representative said.

The aim is to develop new options that can extend patients’ lives and improve their health.

Among the advances she highlighted were research into certain types of breast cancer and studies of childhood leukaemia.

She explained that some of this work has produced results that are now leading to clinical trials and new treatment options.

“Many advances are already being made, and clinical trials resulting from this research are now being carried out with patients,” she said.

For the association, these advances mean more than scientific progress: they can change the outlook for people facing serious illnesses.

“That is why we call them life projects: they can help patients who may not have expected it to recover their health and embark on a new life project,” she said.