Mijas to bake giant 100-metre pastry ribbon for ALS charity day

Mijas will mark World ALS Day with a charity event built around an enormous pastry creation. Residents and visitors can join in the day from 6:30pm on Saturday 20 June at the boulevard car park in La Cala de Mijas, where baking, music and fundraising will all come together for an important cause.

A pastry ribbon for a great charity

Local bakeries Salvador and Tejeros will join forces to craft a whopping 100-metre puff pastry ribbon filled with semi-cold cream. Slices will be sold to attendees, with every euro going directly towards research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), known in Spain as ELA. A separate drinks stall will also operate on site, with its takings contributing to the cause.

Music, family and community spirit

Organisers want the evening to feel inclusive to everyone, so a stage will host a performance from Víctor Rojas’s dance group, giving families another reason to stay and enjoy the atmosphere.

Mijas mayor Ana Mata, who unveiled the initiative with Benalela association president Juan Carrasco and social inclusion councillor Mari Francis Alarcon, stressed how vital research remains given that patients typically survive just three to four years after diagnosis.

A disease without a cure

ALS destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, gradually robbing patients of the ability to move, eat, speak or breathe, even though mental faculties stay sharp throughout. Roughly 4,000 people live with the condition in Spain, where doctors record around 900 new cases each year, typically among those aged between 40 and 70.

Ranking as the third most common neurodegenerative disease in the country, behind Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, ALS results in fewer overall sufferers than its prevalence might suggest, simply because of how aggressively it progresses.

How to join in

No entry fee applies, so anyone keen to support the cause need only turn up from 6:30pm this Saturday and buy a pastry slice or a drink at the venue and enjoy the evening

For more information on World ALS day and the debilitating condition, visit the ALS website directly.