Mysterious millionaire donates one million euros to University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain to advance their studies in the fight against Coronavirus

Mysterious millionaire donates one million euros to University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain to advance their studies in the fight against Coronavirus

ON Friday the University of Castilla-La Mancha were shocked to discover that someone had deposited a million euros in the account of their extraordinary patronage programme #UCLMcontraCOVID19.

Miguel Ángel Collado, the rector of Castilla-La Mancha, says that at first, they thought it must be a mistake, “that someone had made a mistake with the zeros”. In its 35 years, however, there was a nervous wait over the weekend as the donor has 24 hours to back out. But, finally, on Monday, Collado confirmed that there was no misunderstanding and that the deposit had been made from abroad.

The donor, an anonymous woman, “Did it out of gratitude to Spain,” said a spokesperson.

In the last two weeks, the university had raised €103,000 in 754 contributions to fight against COVID-19, 80 per cent of which were from its professors, administration and staff. The fund is going to be used to make artificial respirators, 3D printing of medical devices and diagnostic tests for the COVID-19. But the unexpected million euros now allows the University of Castilla-La Mancha to be much more ambitious in its plans. It will buy nucleic acid extraction robots that it will install at the  Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas on the Albacete campus.

“Thanks to the technicians and robots we will be able to participate in vaccine, antiviral and seroprevalence studies, ” said Collado.

Castilla-La Mancha is one of the Spanish regions most affected by COVID-19. The registry of this Tuesday numbered 1,422 patients hospitalized that day, 54 deaths and 249 new cases.