Porsche Penske Motorsport will once again go “Racing for Charity” at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, raising crucial funds to initiatives which help seriously ill children worldwide.
Having successfully launched in 2023, Porsche is continuing its charitable initiative Racing for Charity” at this year’s French endurance classic.
Porsche will donate 500 euros for each lap driven by the Porsche Penske Motorsport works cars, and the funds will be split between Kinderherzen retten e.V. and Interplast Germany e.V.
The initiative earned Porsche first place in the ‘Sustainable Endurance Award’ of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO).
Overall, a total of €1,822,000 has been donated since the start of Racing for Charity.
Porsche hopes to make another substantial donation to both charities following the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race runs from 4pm on June 14 until 4pm on June 15.
Kinderherzen retten e.V.
Kinderherzen retten e.V. helps children from developing countries who have congenital heart defects.
Professor Friedhelm Beyersdorf, founder of the association joined the University of Freiburg Medical Centre in Germany in 1994, helping to develop its paediatric cardiac department before establishing the charity in 2002.
Since then, it has saved the hearts of hundreds of children. With the donations from the last two years the charity has been able to provide 28 children with successful and life-saving heart operations.
The charity treats children who can be cured in just one surgery, without needing additional treatment or medication once they return to their home countries.
Case study: Niko, 13-years-old, Peru
Niko was brought from Peru to Germany with the help of a new cooperation partner from Kinderherzen retten.
Suffering from heart issues, he needed treatment which he was unable to receive at home.
Together with his mother and another patient from Peru, he travelled for treatment, and received an aortic valve and dilatation plasty to treat his severe aortic isthmus stenosis and aortic valve defect.
The surgery was very successful, and he now has the opportunity for healthy development.
Interplast Germany
Founded in 1980, Interplast Germany is dedicated to humanitarian plastic reconstructive surgery operating young patients in developing countries suffering from soft tissue defects caused by accidents, burns, tumours and congenital malformations.
Interplast works globally, and has an international network operating in developing countries. The donations from Porsche since 2023 helped support medical missions in Asia, Africa and South America to provide aid, especially in Tanzania and Mozambique.
The funds meant Interplast was able to operate on more than 300 additional children in those two countries, providing vital help to those who would have otherwise been unable to receive it.
It also provides education to local surgeons in the field of reconstructive surgery to allow them to perform that work in the future.
Case study: Rhonda, four-years-old, Tanzania
Rhonda is from a small village in the north of Tanzania.
Aged just four-years-old, she was found to have a fast-growing tumor on her right arm with a large chronic wound.
She was previously treated in her village, but the expertise for proper care was lacking, and the impact of her condition meant she missed kindergarten for the whole of last year.
Thanks to Interplast, the tumour was successfully removed, and she can move her arm again. Now, Rhonda is eager to start school.
