Hot chocolate party in Villajoyosa, Costa Blanca to combat childhood cancer

HUNDREDS of people attended a charity Chocolatada at Villajoyosa’s Censal park on the Costa Blanca to mark International Childhood Day. The Chocolatada, or drinking chocolate party, was organised by the Villajoyosa Parents’ Association with help from the town hall’s Education department to raise funds for treatment and research into childhood cancer. Thick Spanish drinking chocolate is notoriously messy to drink and the Chocolatada, announced as “Get dirty faces for childhood cancer”, was promoted by a group of associations representing the families of patients at the Sant Joan de Deu Hospital in Barcelona.
This has prompted 1,026 Chocolatadas nationwide, although Villajoyosa’swas the only Marina Bajaevent. The 319 Chocolatadas organised throughout Spain in 2019 raised €158,000 for research and with more than a thousand this year, the organisers are hoping to collect considerably more. At present, 20 per cent of children do not survive cancer and the 80 per cent who are cured often have significant after-effects. The money raised through the Chocolatadas will help to improve treatments and remind the public that investigation is the only answer in these childhood cases where prevention has not been possible.