Today, Xavier Ayala, president and founder of the charity organisation Vi per Vida, founded in March 2014, has presented Joan Guinovart, director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), located at PCB, with the first donation of the charity amounting to 3,800 euros. 

This was collected through small contribution from members of the public during two wine-tasting events held in Mollerussa and Calella in 2014. Vi per Vida has announced three more wine-tasting gatherings and new fund-raising activities for 2015.

Set up by Xavier Ayala, a sommelier from the Catalan town of Mollerussa, with the support of the Ayala-Cots family, Vi per Vida aims to raise awareness about metastasis—the spread of a primary tumour to distant organs, a process that causes 90% of deaths from cancer—and to contribute to the work being carried out in this field in competitive research labs in Catalonia.

“Vi per Vida is a homage to my father, who died of lung metastasis when I was 11 years old. A year ago the opportunity arose to turn by dream into reality by bringing together wine and charity fund-raising activities to collect money for research. We are delighted to support IRB Barcelona,” says Xavier Ayala. 

The two wine-tasting events held so far have involved the participation and collaboration of more than 750 people and 20 organisations. Furthermore, various popular Catalan figures have supported and promoted Vi per Vida, such as the researcher Joan Massagué, the restauranteurs Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca and Carme Ruscalleda, the illustrator Pilarín Bayés, the actors Carlos Latre and Quim Masferrer, the journalist Elisabet Carnicé, the musician David Carabén from Mishima, and the motorbike racer Àlex Márquez.