2023-06-20 18:09:30
Leaving Nantes by plane on April 5 for Lisbon, Xavier Pageot, a retired Orleans native, rode his bike there to cover the 5,000 km that separate the capital of Portugal from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. After a stopover in Orléans, with a ten-day break, he set off again on Monday June 19 from Loiret, driven by the ambition to reach his destination by the end of July.
Its goal ? Share the story of Ava, her great-niece, who celebrated her first birthday on March 25. This baby was born with a double malformation of the ears, “undetectable before birth”, an absence of auditory canal and eardrum.
250,000 euros are needed for the operation
His parents must find 250,000 euros to finance an operation to reconstruct the auditory canals, proposed by American surgeons. Every day, Xavier Pageot completes stages of up to 120 km. “I get up before dawn, which allows me to stop early,” says the amateur cyclist, shortly after pitching his tent in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire.
This project had been in a corner in his head for a very long time. “I took the opportunity to dedicate this course to Ava. His initiative is, in his eyes, “natural and has nothing to do with courage”. But, touched by the altruism of this man, individuals and associations pay him donations directly on his way. To date, the parents, who founded the association Une chance in’OUIE pour Ava, have already raised 101,000 euros, largely with the Helloasso platform.
#man #Orléans #cycled #raise #funds #greatniece #born #ears