"If I'm alive today, it's thanks to research." The diagnosis at six years old: the cruel one that takes away the lightheartedness of childhood and steals your smiles. Meanwhile, the trips from Nuoro to the Microcitemico hospital in Cagliari and the appointment with chemotherapy begin. Her hair is falling out, strand by strand, but the results aren't forthcoming, leading Giovanna Manca and her parents to knock on the doors of the Bambin Gesù hospital in Rome.
The turning point
The turning point in the capital is an experimental therapy. It works. Just like the bone marrow transplant she, then a child, received from her little sister Sofia, just three years old: "If I can tell my story today, it's thanks to medical advances, thanks to AIRC, and of course, my sister." A precious testimony, coming just before the new event of the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research, which, after its stop at the Quirinale, returns to the square and even visits schools with research chocolates. This is the last event of the sixtieth anniversary and an unmissable opportunity to ensure that the stories of those who have survived continue to grow.
Survivor
"I know my story can help many families today who are facing what mine went through. I hope it can bring a little light and hope to those who see everything as bleak." There is the strength and awareness of having defeated the disease in the voice and story of Giovanna, twenty years old, from Nuoro, enrolled in the second year of Political Science. The strength of someone who has defeated cancer and discovered the bitter taste of life at an age when one is perhaps too young to understand but probably stronger not to think the worst. "I started feeling sick in first grade. I was six years old but I was always sad, tired, with a grayish complexion. At first the doctors didn't understand, they first talked about cystitis, then came the diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a very rare form for those times. The next day, Mom and Dad took me to the Microcitemic Hospital." It was 2012, and the chemotherapy and treatments were not giving the hoped-for results. Her parents did not give up: they continued to fight and search for answers. "My mother found out on the AIRC website that some experimental therapies were underway. She contacted Professor Locatelli at Bambino Gesù Hospital, and he took our case to heart. I began treatment and then underwent a bone marrow transplant, donated by my sister Sofia, which was found to be a 100% compatible match. The following year, in 2013, I was officially cured and gradually regained the life that had been put on hold by cancer." Twelve years later, she is living proof that research is the cure, even for cancer.
