Behind the return of Luis Enrique, former Barcelona coach and current PSG coach, there is a good solidarity cause. The Asturian announced the creation of the Xana Foundation, of which he is a founding patron along with his wife, Elena Cullell, and whose main objective will be to accompany children who suffer from serious illnesses and their families.
This initiative, of a family nature, “is inspired by the smile and the desire to make happy the people who surrounded Xana Martínez Cullell”, the couple’s daughter who died in 2019 at the age of 9 from osteosarcoma. “When life hits you, it does so without concessions, without regard, head on and without pauses. Afterwards and only with the passage of time, you accept it, share it and assimilate it,” explains Luis Enrique. “Over many months we tried to fight the disease as is done in sport and especially in mine. All together, as a team, the close family, supporting us and trying to ensure that Xana did not live in distress and above all with the hope of healing. In the end, the trip is over and we remember every day how lucky we were during those 9 years of infinite happiness and enjoyment. We continue to see her photos, videos and memories every day because her energy is still very present in the family,” insists the Asturian.
And he added that “the Xana Foundation was created with the purpose of helping all those people who, unfortunately, go through these experiences and do not have resources to accompany their children. In our case, we were lucky to be able to leave our jobs and dedicate ourselves one hundred percent to Xana in her process. “We want to help these families and accompany them.”
The main purpose of the Foundation is to “offer comprehensive assistance and support to children and young people affected by serious illnesses and their families”, for whom they will try to be “a pillar of support at all levels, whether emotional, physical, economic and also organizational, offering help during the difficult journey that the disease entails.
Help for pediatric patients and their families will be carried out “with our own programs and also collaborating and financing external projects, such as the construction of the Victory Pavilion promoted by the Villavecchia Foundation or the Integrative Pediatric Oncology Unit of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu”, adds the text.
Luis Enrique announced that all the profits generated from his broadcast on Twitch will go to finance the Xana Foundation, which also has a special song composed by the singer Joan Dausà. “They say that some time ago, if you see the sky at night, you will notice that something has changed…”, this is how the song that he composed after meeting his parents begins. “They explained to me that Xana really liked my songs, especially ‘La gran euforia’. We had some meetings and so much complicity was generated between Xana’s parents and my wife Eli and I that I felt the need to write a song and send it to Elena and Luis,” explains the musician. And that’s how ‘Xana’ was born, a song that “aims to be a nostalgic hug that makes you smile, that longs to provoke this trip with Xana towards heaven to always have her present.”
Dausà, who wanted to support the concert next October at the Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid.
The family chose as the image of the Foundation a little dreamer with big brown eyes that convey kindness and enthusiasm, long hair, a tender smile and who wields a magic wand. She wears a shield X in her heart and a heroine mask that links her to the creative universe of the artist Edgar Plans, who wanted to support the Xana Foundation with this very special drawing.
A drawing that shares traces of his well-known Animal Heroes tribe, his unmistakable small animals with powers and critical consciousness known throughout the planet. “For the drawing I was inspired by his name, Xana, which has a lot of meaning in Asturian mythology, linked to nature. His family told me about his smile and mischief, his love for animals, his passion for horses and how lively he was. With all this, I imagined a little dreamer, with her smile and that illusion without borders,” explains Plans.
The Xana Foundation will hold its first dinner in the summer and the website is open so that people can collaborate with specific donations or with joint projects. “If you make a donation of four million, I’ll still tell Mbappé to rest against Barça,” joked the coach who took advantage of the event to answer questions and interact with the fans.