Queen Sofía of Spain was back in Asturias to preside over the official inauguration of a conference on Alzheimer’s and the integration of sufferers in daily life.
On 9th November, Her Majesty arrived in the town of Gijón and, in front of the Convention Centre, she was welcomed by local authorities, including the President of the Principality of Asturias and the mayor of the city, as well as the President of the Spanish Confederation for Alzheimer.
Once inside, Queen Sofia declared the conference open and called on authorities to offer their speeches. After the short “institutional portion” of the day, authorities left the conference room and went to listen to a lecture by Pascual Sánchez-Juan, scientific director of the Foundation Centre for Research on Neurological Diseases.
The conference focused on “The importance of networking to stop Alzheimer’s”, and the expert talked not only about the need for maximum cooperation between all social groups rotating around a patient suffering from the condition, but also about the importance of keeping our brains active by networking information in order to help delay the effects of Alzheimer’s as much as possible.
After a short visit to booths of various entities that work on Alzheimer’s Disease, Queen Sofía held an informal meeting with people taking part in the conference.
This visit comes as her role within the royal family was recently the object of some speculation. After she missed the institutional portion of her granddaughter’s 18th birthday, and turned 85 a few days later, some wondered if she was going to reduce her agenda even further back, in order to take care of her family, with her younger sister Princess Irene seemingly appearing frailer and frailer each time she is seen in public.
However, neurodegenerative diseases are one of Queen Sofia’s focuses, something that over the years has brought her and Queen Silvia of Sweden to meet many times at international events on the topic.
