PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – The steps ahead of recent years have been incredible, but stopping is not allowed and the path can only go ahead with the participation of civil society: this is the main message that emerges from the meeting ‘Many lives start again from research’, organized by the Ail Palermo-Trapani on the occasion of the National Day for the fight against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma in the headquarters of the Order of the Doctors of Palermo. Among the others is the president of Ail Palermo Pino Toro, the regional Councillor for the Nuccia Albano Family, the president of the Order of Doctors of Palermo Toti Amato, the responsible Development territory Sicily of UniCredit Vincenzo Evola, the general manager of the Department for health activities and epidemiological observatory of the Region Giacomo Scalzo and the city council member to the youth policies Fabrizio Ferrandelli. The appointment was not only an opportunity to make a summary of the goals achieved by the association in recent times in terms of education to solidarity, promotion of scientific research and assistance to the sick, but also to announce the next initiatives planned. The first concerns the subscription, which took place at the current event, of the extension of the convention between the Hospitaller Company Villa Sofia-Cervello and Ail for the next twenty years; the second is instead related to the birth of a new multifunctional Center of the association in Via Prague in Palermo, a place where patients can find free answers and 360 degree support.
Ail also presented the social budget for 2025: the numbers speak of 359 volunteers on the territory, 6,224 active donors, 324 organizations supporting the initiatives, 215 participants in the training courses, 896 nights of hospitality offered between patients and caregivers in the Case Ail Coccinella and Chiocciola, 42.000 kilometers from the housings to the treatment centers with the shuttle service for the patients who needed it, another 90.503.
“This is an important event, because it serves to raise public awareness about the problems of blood cancer and to represent the services that Ail offers to patients – says Toro. Today leukemia is a healable evil, more than 70% of hematological pathologies are healed and all this we owe to research, our researchers and the support of civil society. 50% of the research funds come from private individuals, free citizens, foundations and companies: without this support today probably research would not have taken these steps as a giant, so days like this serve to make known these things and push citizens to be present in support of our campaigns and our researchers. Over 70% of patients today heal thanks to new treatments, new drugs, immunotherapies approach: there are also to consider targeted therapies that today make a patient be healed and treated without side effects at a time. Today in Italy we have about 30 thousand cases a year of leukemia and various forms of blood cancer, but we also have 500 thousand people who live with the disease thanks to chronicization and the steps made: these people must be supported, taken into account, helped in all ways including psychological support, nutritionist assistance, physical activity.” As for the Multifunctional Center, he adds, it is a project for which we will call in support of all public opinion in Palermo: it will be a meeting point for patients, a place where this type of treatment can be offered free of charge and where doctors and caregivers can gather. The latter remain the main support: the most important welfare of our country are the relatives, friends and volunteers. We are fighting at national level for caregivers to have help on the level of work, contributions, rights and other, but at the same time we are cultivating the opportunity to better inform caregivers about the disease and help them do their service: a sort of school of caregivers will be born and this will be done in this multifunctional Center, where we hope to be a reference point for patients of Palermo”.
Albano highlights how “the medicine goes on, but above all on hematology have been made giant steps: this comfort both me and people suffering from hematological diseases, along with their families. We have to thank all Ail volunteers who support researchers, doctors and health professionals in helping to make these people feel good.”.
Amato instead focuses on the importance of research as a tool through which “we can move forward in this society that needs more and more people, care and continuous assistance: assistance does not only mean assisting the sick, but a continuous accompaniment so that people can have a more dignified and serene life. Years ago leukemia was a death sentence while today, with research and with everything that has been implemented even in terms of preventive care or in the early stages of the disease, people can be saved: they need a diagnosis as early as possible, research and appropriate assistance”.
In reaffirming the link between UniCredit and Ail, Evola recalls that “it is a long-term partnership, not only local but national in many initiatives. As UniCredit we also do from resonance to their interventions on the territory: all this is framed in a particular attention that we have for all voluntary associations, because we want to go beyond the core business of the bank and support them with the role of facilitators for their action, through different tools including the management of the ethical charter funds, our Banking Academy and the portal My gift”.
Scalzo’s reflection concerns the responsibility of healthcare professionals on all levels: “Every patient deserves maximum attention, but when there is a risk of life it deserves a little more: I want to remember Article 32 of the Constitution, which speaks of the right to health of citizens, equality, uniformity throughout the territory and homogeneity, most of all in the field of health. We are the men of the State, of the Region, of the Asp: we have dedicated life to health and when we have entered the professional orders of the Medici, of the Pharmacists, of the Biologists, of the Veterinarians, the symbol was the same for all, a snake that wraps the skin; that serpent has a fundamental role for us, because anyone looking at it saves life. We who have chosen health care must study for each patient and put our studies at the service of care: to all health professionals I make an appeal saying that we must not limit ourselves to looking at the disease, because it is a physical pain with the drugs that we have available disappears but there is another pain that does not disappear and belongs to intimacy, to the deepest part of every human being. We must listen to each patient and their family members and put our studies to service: what I ask everyone, me first, is to listen to who asks to be helped and put all our studies at their service in an uninterested and free manner.”.
– photo xd8/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
