El gran repte és superar-se un mateix cada dia per ser millor persona

“I consider myself a supportive person but until now I had not dared to carry out a solidarity challenge. I never could have imagined what it was going to become, everything has overflowed, it has been amazing "

He is Victor Telletxea, better known by his friends and neighbors from Sopuerta (Bizkaia) as Bittín. A very simple man, a friend of his friends and with a big heart. A great athlete since he was a child, he is 42 years old and is the father of two daughters.

His friendship with a former teammate of his running team, whose 3-year-old son has just been diagnosed with Ataxia Telangiectasia, is what has prompted him to perform this feat, the “Puerto de Bezi” Everesting Challenge for the benefit of the research of the Ataxia Telangiectasia, with which he has managed to raise more than € 6,500 in less than two weeks.

Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT or A-T) is a degenerative minority genetic disease. It usually manifests before two years of age and affects the functions of different organs. Ataxia telangiectasia causes inability to coordinate movements, progressive loss of mobility, slurred speech, stunted growth, immunodeficiency, and many other complications. It is a very hard condition whose patients cannot autonomously perform the basic activities of life, such as dressing, personal hygiene, eating ... in addition, those who suffer from it are fully aware that their disease no longer affects their mental faculties. For more information on the disease read here.

When Victor found out that his friend's son had been diagnosed with this disease, he did not hesitate. He wanted to support his friend, a friend with whom they share a passion, the bike, a friend who in the past had helped and supported him a lot both on the bike and off the bike when he needed it most. Now the time had come to return so much generosity, to support his cause and what better way than to do it through his passion, the bike. For this reason, the Everesting Challenge was raised.

Everesting is a sporting challenge that is very fashionable: a bike ride with a cumulative difference in altitude greater than the height of Everest, 8,848 meters in a single port. In his case, it was 19 hours pedaling, 41 climbs to Puerto de Bezi, 312 km and 8,859 meters of unevenness. For this great sporting feat, he has been training every day in recent months. He had the support of several colleagues and friends, including the father of the boy with ataxia telangiectasia who accompanied him on several climbs and encouraged him.

Víctor tells us that the experience has been very hard but that it has been worth it. An extra effort of a person can move a lot: in his case he has managed to spread ataxia telangiectasia widely, interviews in the press, on TV, on social networks. He is very happy and proud because beyond the collection achieved, more than 6,500 euros in less than two weeks, he has managed to put his grain of sand to make many people aware that it can happen to all of us, that if it touches you, thank you for the help and feel accompanied in the daily struggle these families face. Families are very grateful that solidarity challenges like this are made, because with the pandemic, many solidarity events organized by the AEFAT Association have been canceled to pay the € 50,000 per year that the research projects that are being carried out in the Clinic of the University of Navarra. Without a treatment or cure, the hope of children with Ataxia Telangiectasia lies in the success of research projects like this one.

Thanks to Víctor's challenge and 4 other sporting challenges, the AEFAT Association has become the Cause of the Month for September for having received the support of 232 donors.