Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, the charity which fixes the hearts of children from all over the world, celebrated its 25th birthday in 2021.

Over its 25 years, 3700 children have come from 70 countries over the world to have heart operations in France, all expenses paid. They stay with volunteer host families and their care continues when they return to their own countries.

Mécénat doesn’t count its support in terms of money, but in the number of children it can provide operations for. Every fundraising event, every partnership, every donation helps them to fund surgery for a child with heart problems.

One year ago almost to the day, LOV Group decided to help the charity and to mobilise its staff in this benevolent venture.

We started with a month-long sporting challenge, during which 126 Airelles staff members from the hotels and Paris office walked or ran 18000 km to help pay for the operation for three-year-old Mariam Soubounou from Mali. She suffers from a rare heart condition called Tertalogy of Fallot – and was the 3700th child treated thanks to Mécénat !

Mariam was successfully operated on in Strasbourg in July, and can now live an almost normal life, according to her family. This event held for her helped motivate others too and the success of this challenge resulted in two more being organised. In 2022, Banijay and Betclic are holding sporting challenges which will raise funds for operations for two more children.

As for LOV Group and Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, we also took part in Trophée du Cœur de St Nom la Bretèche, ran the Ecotrail for the charity and on July 10 this year, we have a cyclist taking part in the ceremonial ‘depart’ of the Tour de France stage between Briançon et l’Alpe d’Huez.

Our Airelles hotels regularly donate all-inclusive stays to raffles and auctions organised by the charity, and our many staff receive birthday cards from which proceeds are donated to the organisation, as well as all the Happy New Year cards in 2022.

Taking part as well as giving it at the heart of our ethos: on December 17 at Parc Floral de Vincennes, a team of ten Airelles staff helped volunteers put on a Christmas sale which raised enough for operations for 20 children – a record. Our brands Ladurée and Fouquet had stands for three days and their products were very popular!

The year 2021 was emotional and enriching for us all. We are delighted to be continuing the partnership between LOV Group and Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque in 2022.