Who is the woman that Pau Donés called La Jefa and who has accompanied him throughout his illness?

Even in the farewell words of the Instagram of Pau Donés, who died today at the age of 53, there is a memory for all the medical teams that helped him coexist with colon cancer. The response from the other side was not long in coming, this time via Tweet: “Thanks Pau, thanks for having helped so many, for trying to de-stigmatize this disease, for helping us understand it and for being you to the end ”.

Who fired the singer in this way was neither his daughter nor his Skinny, although he is part of the list of important women in the singer's life: the doctor Elena Élez, researcher at the Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Tumors Group of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and medical oncologist at the Oncology Service of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (HUVH); the oncologist who treated him since colon cancer was detected.

The importance of teaming up

A gene, or rather, an oncogene linked their stories: specifically one called BRAF, the specialty of Dr. Élez who, when she met Pau Donés, had already three years studying this mutation in colorectal cancer cases. After the first intervention, she was in charge of explaining to the singer what was happening to her and why her case was not easy: just 5 to 8% of patients have ARB-mutated colorectal tumorsF. Suffering from this mutation causes the tumor to behave differently.

It was not the only thing that behaved differently. The singer has already warned him from the first moment he received the bad news: he was not from dramas. But yes of actions and this was demonstrated by forming a team that has rarely been seen with his doctor.

Researcher and singer did interviews together on more than one occasion talking about colon cancer, trying to offer the vision of the specialist who is looking for solutions and the patient who wants combat stigma of disease to help everyone who walks that path.

>

The commitment to remove the stigma to cancer

The singer organized concerts to support the investigation of "the boss", as Pau Donés called Elena Élez, because in research all the euros count and all the needed ones are never received. Thanks to those first charity concerts € 70,000 was raised… and a few more thanks from the oncologist. "Is thanks to Pau's incredible effort that we can all come together again in a charity concert and shouldering in this fight against cancer, "he said.

Collaborations on television and mutual thanks never ceased. Pau Donés, kept talking about his illness, about his day to day, starred in a documentary, Syrup against cancer, where you could see how "I was fighting the crab" he and everyone who cared for him in the hospital, including, of course, Elena Élez. The same one that had to warn him that he only had a 20% chance of surviving five yearsBut that was not an excuse to put aside his life. The singer proved to pay attention to "the boss" until the end: in May he released a new album.