Barcelona couple leaves €1.55m to cancer research centre

This is the first time the IRB has been left funds in a will, and says it has come from a married couple who specified it should be put towards researching metastasis.

Their names have not been revealed, but their solicitor Jaume Solé Janer says the couple has 'always been committed to cancer research', having made 'numerous donations whilst alive' to hospitals, charities and scientific organisations to help fund research and care for cancer patients.

“Their impression of the IRB in Barcelona was always excellent,” said Solé Janer, who revealed that the couple had decided to leave their fortune to the institute after meeting its co-director, Dr Joan Massagué, in 2009.

Manager Dr Joan J. Guinovart says: “For over seven years, we kept in constant contact, met on several occasions, and they visited our laboratories.

“The considered research into metastasis to be absolutely necessary and a chance to advance in our knowledge and improve general health – it made them very happy to be able to leave their funds to us.”

Several key research projects into the origins and treatment of metastatic cancer are currently under way at the IRB, and the money will be 'crucial' to speeding up their studies, Guinovart reveals.

“This is a very generous donation and it's very relevant for research centres to receive financial support from the public,” Dr Guinovart explains.

“We've noticed a growing awareness within society about the importance of biomedical research.”

Dr Massagué, who is now head of the IRB Barcelona Scientific Assessment Committee and director of the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York says it is 'vital' to 'reinforce basic research, not just clinical research, with charity' to help scientists make major steps towards fighting cancer 'for the benefit of patients and their families'.

Although the €1.55m received recently is the first inheritance the IRB has actually seen, an increasing number of people in the last few years have contacted them to arrange to leave some of their assets to them when they eventually die.

According to figures from the Catalunya College of Notaries dating from 2015 – the most recent available – around €115m in funds have been left in wills to cancer research, either actually handed over or pending when the wills are finally executed, of which €33m has been bequeathed in Catalunya itself.

In Spain as a whole, 0.9% of wills, as at 2015, included a legacy to a charity of some description, or 0.7% of wills in Catalunya.

The IRB has recently joined the website LegadoSolidario.org which makes it easier for members of the public to include legacies to up to 23 different charities in their wills.

Photograph: MaRía Rb on Facebook