José Manuel Esteban begins his route to Paris to benefit Conquistando Escalones

Without much luggage but with a backpack full of motivation, José Manuel Esteban, president of the Rotary Club Vila-real, has started this Saturday from the Plaza Mayor of Vila-real his solidarity challenge: to complete by bicycle the 1,300 kilometers that separate Vila-real from Paris and raise, thanks to this feat, funds for the Conquistando Escalones Association.

But the challenge does not end here. And before leaving for the city of love, Esteban has announced that if the €2,600 set for this challenge is exceeded, “I will do 300 more kilometers and go to Belgium to participate in a Rotary meeting planned in this city.” An announcement that he made to those who have come to wish him a good trip, such as the deputy mayor of Vila-real, María Fajardo, the councillor for Youth, Javier López and the councillor of the PP, Pablo Llopico, in addition to the president of Conquistando Escalones, Abrahán Guirao, as well as other members of Rotary together with family and friends of the cyclist.

With this last minute announcement, it is more than likely that the final destination will be Belgium since at the time of its departure, the campaign has already managed to raise 2407 euros of the 2,600 initially planned, but people or companies interested in joining can still sponsor the kilometres of the journey in a very simple way; donating from 2 € by clicking on the following button.

Esteban has planned to do about 130 kilometers today, accompanied on the first few kilometers by some members of Rotary. Afterwards he will continue on his way, averaging 160 kilometers a day, to reach Paris next weekend. “I have never done such a long route. I had done the Camino de Santiago, to Finisterre, which is about 1,200 kilometres that I completed in 10 days. Now, apart from giving this challenge a charitable background, it is 100 kilometres more, with the Pyrenees in the middle,” explains Esteban.

To immortalise this initiative, Esteban will share a daily report on the Rotary Vila-real Instagram and Facebook accounts as well as on his personal networks and even several live broadcasts. “I don’t have any logistics, I go alone and the objective is to go from campsite to campsite and if I don’t find one, I will stay outdoors. It is a real adventure.” The fundamental thing, beyond trying to complete the stages outside the central hours of the day, is “that there is no shortage of water.”

For his part, Abrahán Guirao, has had words of gratitude towards the highest representative of Rotary Vila-real. Guirao points out that it is not always easy to obtain funds for research into Limb-girdle Muscular Dystrophy 1F/D2 (LMGDD2) so “finding people like José Manuel, who, in a completely altruistic way, launch actions that help us raise funds to research our disease is a stroke of luck and we couldn’t be more grateful.”

Esteban met Abrahán Guirao last summer thanks to the filming of the series Abrahán con ene. From that moment on, he knew he wanted to promote some initiative in favour of the Association and, therefore, of medical research into LGMDD2 to find a definitive treatment or cure for this disease considered rare and which, in turn, will serve as a step towards a more effective treatment against the AIDS virus since the mutation that causes LGMDD2 makes those who suffer from it immune to HIV, so the findings on one disease benefit the other. “Like life itself and like Abraham, this action involves conquering a double challenge, the sporting and the social, which allows the development of treatments for the disease,” says the president of Rotary Vila-real.