Date Published: 22/04/2020
ARCHIVED - Mystery donor gives 1 million euros to university coronavirus research fund in Castilla-La Mancha
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The donor made her donation out of “gratitude to Spain”
An anonymous donation of one million euros has been received by the University of Castilla-La Mancha in a funding program set up to combat the effects of Covid-19, the only information available being that the donor is a woman and that the payment was made from outside Spain.
When the transfer appeared in the relevant bank account last Friday, university rector Miguel Ángel Collado’s first reaction was that someone must have accidentally deposited the money in the wrong account or inadvertently added couple of zeros to the intended donation. However, by Monday confirmation was received from the bank that this was a genuine contribution from a woman who they say has made the gesture out of “gratitude to Spain”.
Prior to last Friday’s mystery donation the university fund had received 754 donations totalling 103,000 euros, 80 per cent of the money having been given by professors and administration and services staff. But at a stroke the capacity to purchase respirators and to use 3-D printers for the production of PPE and Covid-190 testing equipment has been multiplied by ten, and now now the intention is to purchase robots to extract RNA at the regional bio-medical research centre at the campus of Albacete.
Castilla-La Mancha is one of the regions of Spain which have been hardest hit by the pandemic, with a rate of 528 active cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Tuesday, the highest in the country ahead of La Rioja (506) and Navarra (488).
Image: UCLM
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