Originally, the American Telethon was a 22-hour "televised marathon" in a studio which helped raise, in 1986, the equivalent of 30 million euros. In August 1986, Pierre Birambeau left for America to learn all he could about the MDA Telethon, with his wife, his eldest son Rémi, 15, and Damien, 13, who is affected by a myopathy. Back home, having adopted his report, AFM's Board of Directors asked him to organize the TV show. AFM chose the France 2 television channel to host the show and the French Lions Club, whose members are volunteers, to answer the pledge calls. The idea was accepted by Jean-Marie Cavada, then manager and in charge of information and programming, and later handed over to his successor Louis Berriot. Produced by Pierre-Henri Arnstam and Jean-Pierre Spiero, the TV show soon outmatched its American counterpart ! Incidentally, during the first TV show (in December 1987), the eight-digit number electronic pledge board ran out of room. An extra number had to be added on a piece of wood : 181,327,459 francs worth of pledges ! We had just embarked on an extraordinary adventure...

"The Telethon wasn't the fruit of chance, Pierre Birambeau insists. With advances in Duchenne myopathy in 1986 (when the gene was discovered), we had concrete results. We had to find the means to progress further and faster. It all started with this incredible intuition. Things were happening in research, we couldn't miss these opportunities to progress."

With the success of the first Telethon, AFM embarked on the genetic adventure and invited the general public to make a deal with scientists and speculate on the future. The AFM Telethon now takes place every year and has almost become a French pre-Christmas tradition.