Téléthon brings in €80m for charity

THIS weekend's Téléthon raised €80.2m - only slightly down on last year despite some fundraising events being cancelled following the Paris terror attacks.

At 2.00 on Sunday morning, the 30-hour television marathon ended with €80,251,183 on the totaliser, compared with €82.35m last year. However the final result will not be known until the end of the year and is usually about €10m higher.

"A post-November 13 Téléthon was always going to be a different Téléthon," said Laurence Tiennot-Herment, president of the AFM-Téléthon association, adding that several fundraisers had been cancelled as a security precaution.

The village of Saint-Valery-en-Caux (Seine-Maritime) organised a fundraising cider sale while Avignon sold 30,000 fougasses for the charity.

The annual event raises cash for muscular dystrophy charity AFM and two-thirds of the donation amount can be deducted from your French income tax.

Money raised goes to funding research into rare illnesses affecting the brain, liver, eyesight and blood. AFM is supporting 37 clinical trials including gene and cell therapy, and 230 research projects.