The annual Cyclamen Day event is renewed to support research against scleroderma. Mara Maionchi, GILS testimonial, comes personally to team up with the volunteers, to inform and support the research
Cyclamen Day 2023 and its testimonial Mara Maionchi
The fundraiser in support of the Italian Group for the Fight against Scleroderma (GILS) started on September 22nd and will continue until the end of October. In Italian squares, the volunteers who join the initiative will distribute, for a small contribution, a cyclamen plant, the symbolic flower of the Association, thus allowing every year not only to raise awareness of this rare, chronic, autoimmune disease, which affects predominantly women, but above all to finance new scientific research projects and raise awareness of early diagnosis. GILS testimonial since 2009, Mara Maionchi. Whenever her presence is needed, the record company most loved by Italians is alongside the association which has been engaged in the fight against scleroderma for over twenty years. Donna Moderna took up her appeal in this interview.
For over 20 years you have been alongside GILS, an association committed to the fight against scleroderma. How did this collaboration come about?
My adventure with GILS was born from the meeting with the now Honorary President – Carla Garbagnati Crosti – who made me discover what Systemic Sclerosis was: an autoimmune disease, chronic, rare and which mainly affects women. Precisely for this reason I felt obliged to do what I could to give my contribution to an association, like GILS, which for over 30 years now has managed to truly stand by the sick and which is committed, day after day, to try to improve their lives by funding scientific research.
What does it mean to be a GILS testimonial?
It gives me great satisfaction, because I feel like I’m doing something good, that I’m helping a really important cause, even if I realize that the hardest work is done by the volunteers, doctors and patients who form the solid GILS network.
What does “prevention” mean in everyday life?
Prevention is fundamental, it is what prevents you from having much more serious problems. To give you an example: I had a tumor which fortunately was discovered during a check-up that I had regularly. As regards Systemic Sclerosis, then, it is important, because not only can it literally save lives, but it can guarantee a much higher quality of life.
Do you want to send a message to the readers of Donna Moderna?
Women, please control yourself! I know it may seem like a nuisance, but a quarter of an hour, in a year, can really save your life. Is very important. I say it and I always repeat it, prevention is essential!
The importance of an early diagnosis
Diagnosing the disease in time is essential to obtain timely treatment that can slow down the clinical course of the disease and guarantee an excellent quality of life. For this reason, during the month dedicated to Cyclamen Day, the “Open Hospitals” project will come to life in which excellent hospital centers throughout Italy will offer consultations and checks, according to their programming, carrying out free capillaroscopy: a test that allows you to intercept the first symptoms of the disease and thus obtain timely, substantial treatment to slow down the clinical course of the disease, guaranteeing an excellent quality of life. But that is not all. For 30 years now, the Association has fought daily alongside Systemic Sclerosis patients, guaranteeing them support and promoting, at the same time, a new approach to the doctor-patient relationship, increasingly focused on listening and personalized assessment of each individual case.
All the squares and hospitals involved in the project can be discovered on www.sclerodermia.net.
GILS launches #labellezzacheresiste, the social campaign dedicated to the thousand facets of beauty
On the occasion of Beauty Week – in Milan from 26 September to 2 October – GILS launches the new social campaign #labellezzacheresiste. The protagonists are women suffering from Systemic Sclerosis who have decided to show their real beauty, which inevitably transformed with the arrival of the disease.
The three portraits, online starting from Tuesday 26 September on the GILS IG profile for the entire duration of Beauty Week, are an invitation to look beauty in the eyes, which is everywhere and resists everything, even an illness – like Systemic Sclerosis – which, among its first manifestations, affects the external appearance. Those affected find themselves having to familiarize themselves with the features and facial expressions that change. For this campaign, the images of Tina, Rosanna and Simona embody the emblem of a beauty that is not only aesthetic, but complexity, courage and self-acceptance. But above all, three women who have been experiencing the progression of Systemic Sclerosis first-hand for many years and who have been able to look at themselves in the mirror, year after year, and love themselves as they are, despite the signs left by this chronic autoimmune disease which it especially affects women.
2023-09-26 17:12:49
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