Hours after visiting the Cancer Research Institute in London (Cancer Research UK), the queen spoke at the United Nations to talk about rare diseases. She has done it electronically with a video that she recorded on September 7 from her office in Zarzuela, sitting in an office chair and with a beautiful garden in the background.
That day, the queen presented the Unicef awards and she did so wearing a pink Hugo Boss suit, a Carolina Herrera blouse and kitten heel pumps by Isabel Abdo, the same look she wears in the video. As honorary president of the Spanish Federation of Rare Diseases, Mrs. Letizia has called for “proposals to continue recognizing the rights of people affected by these pathologies and thus end the difficulties in accessing available resources.”
? Telematic intervention by the Queen at the UN to promote a World Health Organization resolution in 2024 in favor of universal health coverage for people with rare diseases.
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— House of HM the King (@CasaReal) September 21, 2023
During her speech, lasting two minutes and forty-three minutes, the queen also referred to “the challenges posed by rare diseases have many fronts” and highlighted: “In Spain, my country and one of the promoters of this initiative , patient organizations focus on updating the Strategy of the National Health System and its homogenization in the different territories.”
The queen concluded her speech by appealing to empathy and solidarity: “I am not going to remind you what it means to have a less prevalent disease or emphasize that the majority appears at pediatric age; nor am I going to talk about its high mortality or what it is like.” the life of adults with a rare pathology or the ordeal of achieving a diagnosis or the multi-disabilities, dependency and destruction of educational, social and professional opportunities that a rare disease entails appearing in our lives. But I will tell you that a resolution of the WHO would bring the necessary commitment of the member countries to share the actions that are already underway and generate a more solid joint path towards equity. I hope it is possible. Thank you for your attention and see you soon.