The hearing solutions company supports the challenge of cyclist Silvia González to finish the Titan Desert after suffering from cancer
The company’s ‘Solidarity Truck’ will improve the hearing health of Moroccan populations that undergo the MTB test
MADRID, 24 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general director of Aural Centros Auditivos, Juan Ignacio Martínez, expressed his hope that the ‘Examples of Improvement’ initiative that the cyclist Silvia González and the two-time marathon world champion Abel Antón will embody with the Aural Team in the next Skoda Titan Desert in Morocco, the mountain bike race that takes place from April 28 to May 3, “is sustainable in the long term.”
“The ‘Examples of Improvement’ program is giving us the return we expected because we are helping people and receiving interest and affection from the media. This encourages us a lot to continue and, of course, our will is that this is sustainable in the long term,” he acknowledged in an interview with Europa Press.
To Juan Ignacio Martínez, or simply Nacho as his friends call him, the story of Silvia González, popular cyclist and promoter of ‘Cycling for All’, came from the mouth of Abel Antón, the leader of that ‘Invincible Army’ of the Spanish marathon. that beat the Africans in the long distance at the end of the last century.
“I told him about what happened to Silvia and he immediately said yes, go ahead,” the athlete from Soria summarized to Europa Press, also embarked on this ‘adventure’ of the Titan in which he has exchanged shoe soles for rubber. of a 7,000 euro carbon Mondraker, training in the icy mountains of Soria and mountain biking in the mountains of Madrid and Alcarreña next to the Trillo nuclear power plant.
The genesis of everything dates back to 2005, the year the Aural Team was created with Abel Antón as ambassador. First was the challenge of the Berlin marathon, which Antón himself won in 1996, prologue to that ‘hack’ against Martín Fiz in the final meters that gave him gold in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, the origin of modern Olympism, barely a year later. Then came other marathons and races throughout Spain and the world.
“The idea was to put a ‘grain of sand’ in raising social awareness regarding untreated hearing deprivation, the hearing loss of those people who have it and do not access treatment. Only 3 out of 10 people who have hearing loss access to treatment through the use of hearing aids. This continues because there is a strong stigma and certain rejection towards the use of hearing aids,” Martínez stressed.
For this reason, Aural launched this ‘Examples of Improvement’ project to “link the effort linked to sport and the athletes’ desire to improve” to people who have hearing loss, and to those who recommend that they make the effort to solution to your hearing problems.
“We ask them to dare to take the step. Because the reward is very important: to integrate on a communicative level and to be able to enjoy a full life with the highest level of well-being. We started with Abel running the Berlin Marathon, we ran many marathons all over the world, and in the last 5 years we have also extended the concept of running to cycling,” explained the CEO of Aural.
THE ‘EXAMPLES’ OF SILVIA AND ABEL
In 2024, the program ‘Examples of Overcoming’ will star Silvia González, diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and undergoing a bone marrow transplant at the end of 2023, and Abel Antón in the Titan Desert in the inhospitable Moroccan desert, where the intense heat will suffocate their legs and The cobbled routes will dig into your arms and buttocks until they cause wounds that make your feat even greater.
“Silvia is an oncology patient who has just undergone an autologous bone marrow transplant and has not wanted to leave the Titan Desert project; finishing it and doing it in her physical conditions is a great example that matches the spirit of the beginning of the project. And Abel makes his debut in a cycling test and it shows a lot of courage to do it in the Titan Desert,” he commented.
‘Nacho’ Martínez himself, a popular cyclist who has two Titans in Almería, the Cape Epic in South Africa and, among other events, the Andalusia Bike Race in his sports resume, will wear the jersey manufactured by the Talavera company Murwall for the Aural Team.
“My responsibility at Aural leaves me little time to train, but I do two or three days of indoor cycling during the week and on the weekends, the longer runs. It is enough to be able to finish, without great pretensions, races of this type,” he noted.
THE SOLIDARITY TRUCK AND FUND
The Aural Team has always had a solidarity purpose, and this year Aural will contribute a financial amount for each of the 19 team participants who complete the Titan Desert for what they call ‘Solidarity Fund’, with which they have financed programs to help children suffering from hearing loss in countries such as Venezuela, Cameroon and Ethiopia.
Furthermore, in this edition of the Titan Desert in Morocco, and together with the KH-7 company, Aural wanted to “raise the bar” by accompanying the race with the ‘Solidarity Truck’, the ‘audition truck’ in which An audiologist and an ENT doctor from Aural will travel to attend to the local population suffering from hearing problems.
“And when we detect hearing loss, we will adapt these people, free of charge, the prosthetic aids they need,” added the Aural manager.
To the example of Silvia and Abel on the Titan, another project on the Camino de Santiago will be added at the beginning of June, which will be completed by nearly fifty Aural employees and friends in three stages by bike, walking or trekking. “Hopefully we can reissue other challenges, with Silvia and Abel, and incorporating other requests for stories of improvement that deserve to be told,” wished the CEO of Aural. Thanks to this company, and its Solidarity Truck, some Moroccan children will enjoy the ‘miracle’ of being able to hear them, for the first time, in their lives.