Go 4 All – Hi, my name is Giacomo and I am an athlete …

In October 2014, due to a knee failure, I discovered I had a tumor . The protocol included 4 pre-operation chemo, the operation (which took place on December 24 of the same year) and finally the last 12 post-operation chemo, the last of which was made in July 2015. In the period from the end of the chemo to April 2016 I was subjected to checks that included a CT scan of the lungs and X-rays of the leg with expiration every three months. In April 2016 I discovered, touching my leg that I had a lump in my right knee, with various checks I discovered that it was a localized recurrence. (On this occasion I risked amputation but thanks to the Pet we opted for a leg conservative operation). One month after the operation, in May 2016 I had an infection that led me to do, until October 2016, 6 months of continuous infusion intravenous antibiotics. But only a month after the antibiotic was discontinued, in November 2016, a lump reappeared in the cavity of my right knee. With controls after controls I discovered that it was both a second relapse and the return of the infection. In this case, in order not to risk that for the third time the recurrence could return and also metastases could start in the lungs, I opted for the amputation of the right leg, which then led to a disarticulation of the hip. Why do I always say that these three years of my life, passed in this tragic way? Because they were the best years of my life! Because he has given me so much more than he could have stolen from me! Click here to discover all our travel proposals for the disabled and accessible !! Today I have a life with a deeper meaning, thanks to the disease I manage to live every moment of the present, living life here and now. The disease made me appreciate every aspect of daily life without leaving any aspect to chance. In addition, this path made me discover passions that have never been explored, such as the love for culture which is essential to know yourself and what revolves around us, the love for reading and writing (thanks to which my book Non Siamo was born. Immuni) , civil passion and love for music . But in all this there is a fundamental step that should not be overlooked. With the amputation that could seem to be the end of everything, an insurmountable limit instead the desire to start playing sports has flourished again. Before my illness I did well for ten years riding at a competitive level. The sport that I felt on my skin and felt like I wanted to undertake was rowing . I do it thanks to my physical condition, because it was this that gave me back the necessary stimuli to restart a path that previously seemed concluded. This is the demonstration that there is no hedge without infinity and there is no infinity without hedge . That is, something longer can arise from a limit, the important thing is to be able to see the beauty in everything with a positive mentality. See not what you don't have but what you have. The last thing I would like to say is that in these three years of illness, there have been various factors that have allowed me to overcome this climb in the best possible way, but one of them was the mentality that I developed through sports. For me sport has been and is a training ground for life: it teaches you that life is not all pink and flowers as we delude ourselves it is but there are also moments in which we fall, in which we feel fragile or in which we are afraid. These moments do not represent the end of our life but only a stage that makes us grow and mature. When we fall from a boat it is not that we give up everything and let go of the first difficulty (not even the hundredth) but we get up and try to understand where we went wrong and what we need to improve. Sport teaches us that beautiful things, those that give you greater satisfaction, are obtained with the sweat of the brow. To get even the most important result of your career you have to follow strenuous workouts, double or triple workouts a day. But then the results come! So this is the plastic demonstration that in life if you want to get there (even if you never get there) you have to take the road that has no shortcuts, you have to go through every stage because each of these will serve to form us at 360 degrees. We treasure both the good moments but especially the negative ones, because it is the latter that determine the man and woman we are or will become. Hi, my name is Giacomo and I am an athlete!