This Tuesday, the Azaña college welcomed the cyclists participating in La Bonne Échappée, a tour of France raising awareness of health sports, organized by the association La Vie en rose.
Leaving Biarritz for a 15-day tour of France, the La Vie en Rose association aims to promote the psychological and physical benefits of health sport among young people. It was following breast cancer and the lack of post-illness psychological follow-up that Nadine Enjalbert decided to found this Breton association in 2019: “They said I was cured, but psychologically, I was not. My oncologist told me encouraged to play sports to avoid a recurrence. So I signed up for a sports raid in pairs and, following that, created La Vie en rose. We finance sports sessions in the hospital for children with Pediatric Oncology (cancers that affect children)”.
La Bonne Échappée belongs to the prevention section of the association. It stems from an observation: “More than two-thirds of teenagers move less than an hour a day and spend more than three hours on screens, underlines Sophie Ledoaré, the coordinator of this second edition. If we continue like this, the doctors tell us that we will not be able to treat all people with pathologies linked to a sedentary lifestyle. After the Covid period, it is really important to understand that movement is life! This is why we have launched a first edition in 2022, by carrying out a cycling tour of France which raised the awareness of 600 young people. We are repeating the experience this year with a 2,400 kilometer route.”
900 young people educated
Thirteen stops in schools are planned, both in primary schools, colleges, high schools, and even a medical-educational institute (IME). “900 students will be sensitized at the end of this tour. The cycling team is not professional, they are just cyclists with big hearts who offered us to be part of the adventure. Each had to take fifteen days in her work to voluntarily support this cause!”, continues the coordinator.
In Azaña, 24 volunteer college students went to join the athletes in Montech to complete the last kilometers of this third stage with them. That is a complete loop of forty kilometers. “Congratulations to the students and their PE teachers and congratulations to the association La Vie en rose which honors solidarity and fraternity in this increasingly individualistic world!”, Launched Philippe Sola, principal of the Azaña college, during the welcome drink of La Bonne Échappée in the college.
The PE teachers had been contacted beforehand by a relay from La Bonne Échappée, David Matelot, who was in charge of finding all the establishments to raise awareness on the cyclist route.
The organization of this tour is indeed substantial and expensive. Sophie Ledoaré points out: “In all, the budget amounts to 90,000 euros, coming solely from private funds, via donations and sponsors. The objective is that public funds, and in particular National Education, subsidize the next editions, so that they take place every year.” The call is launched.