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June 11, 2010

STOP “RARE” at the Bol d'Or Mirabaud in Geneva – Sailing for “RARE”

The 72nd Bol d’Or Mirabaud will be hosted in Geneva this weekend by Corum, the world’s largest inland regatta between Geneva and Le Bouveret. A fleet of 600 sailboats will launch Saturday the 12th of June at 10 am. This world-class competition will feature both amateur sailors and celebrity skippers. Francesco de Angelis, a well-known skipper and five-time world champion who has twice raced for Luna Rossa at the America’s Cup, will attend as host of this year’s event and ambassador of the STOP”RARE” foundation. Francesco, the first ambassador of the foundation, will sail on the MIRABAUD 1/Surprise along with Antonio Palma, Partner and CEO of Mirabaud &Cie private bankers, and will pair their passion for the wind and the waves with their support of patients with rare diseases. "622,967,326 people affected world-wide". This statistic alone explains the motivation behind the STOP “RARE” foundation: to make the general public aware of rare diseases (also known as orphan diseases) and to support the unacceptably high number of people who suffer from them. Through its activity the STOP RARE foundation wishes to create a platform upon which patients can share their experiences and to put into motion projects that will improve their quality of life. By making the experience of each patient a resource for them all, the population of people who suffer from one of the 7,000 rare diseases as well as their families and friends will be empowered to improve their daily lives and triumph over their conditions. The needs of patients and their families are at the heart of the STOP “RARE” mission. The foundation wishes to project their message to the international community, creating a call to action and inspiring significant progress in concrete improvement of the life of patients affected by rare diseases (www.stoprare.org). "I discovered the reality of rare diseases in 2007, when at the unveiling ceremony of the America’s Cup, I saw the logo of mondoBIOTECH under the boat and get in touch with this company", says Francesco de Angelis during the press-conference for the Bol d'Or Mirabaud held yesterday. "From this moment on, I have entered a world that was new for me and I am honored to be ambassador of the foundation STOP “RARE” and be active part of this mission". "It is a big honor to have Francesco as ambassador for STOP “RARE” states Fabio Cavalli, Founder & CEO of mondoBIOTECH. "This is another step confirming that only a widely represented Community can concretely try to offer solutions to the patients and their families and that the work which we have done and we are continuously doing to grow our Community is able to bring the expected results.  STOP “RARE” is an important validation in this direction". Organized by the Sailing Circle of the Société Nautique de Genève, this year’s Bol d’Or Mirabaud presented by Corum will benefit from many improvements to its geo-tracking system. Spectators at home will be able to follow the race in real time on the website www.boldormirabaud.co, thanks to a hundred official beacons in addition to constantly updated news. Additionally, all the competitors can be included in the official race tracking from now on thanks to Map My Tracks (www.mapmytracks.com), offering real-time geo-tracking via internet.

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