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Zara founder donates 320 mln euros to fight cancer in Spain

Xinhua, March 29, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Amancio Ortega Foundation announced Wednesday that it would donate 320 million euros (350 million U.S. dollars) to buy the latest equipment to fight cancer and install them in hospitals in all of Spain's autonomous communities.

The donation marks a change for the foundation, which was set up by the man who founded Inditex, one of the world's largest clothing firms.

Previously, the foundation only carried out its activities in the southern region of Andalusia and Ortega's home region of Galicia.

The 350 million euros is for the purchase of necessary health service equipment, including radiotherapy equipment and scanners to help detect the illness at an early stage.

This donation follows a previous donation of 40 million euros to the Andalusian Health Service in 2016 and 17 million euros in 2015 to install 16 scanners in Galicia to detect breast cancer and to set up the first-ever radiotherapy service in the city of Lugo.

Around 200,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in Spain, of which at least 60 percent need radiotherapy treatment.

According to Forbes Magazine, Ortega is the richest man in Europe with a fortune estimated at 76.2 billion U.S. dollars and annual earnings of 400 million dollars a year from dividends. His first store, Zara, opened in 1975. Endit