TELETHON FOUNDATION

In the USA in 1966 Jerry Lewis invented a non-stop TV production to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This was a successful formula that was adopted also in Europe from 1987 by the French association against myopathies (AFM). In 1990, thanks to the meeting between Susanna Agnelli and the Italian union against muscular dystrophy (Uildm), Telethon arrived in Italy with the first TV marathon. Since that time Telethon has been working daily to provide tangible answers for people striving to overcome genetic disorders of such rarity that they often fail to attract any of the major public or private research funding. Telethon finances the best researchers and research institutes because it believes in merit and excellence: it has been the only successful strategy to bring the initial results in the treatment of genetic disorders.