2024-01-22 20:21:36
Healthy oranges are returning to the main Italian squares. On Saturday 27 January, thousands of volunteers and supporters of Airc, the Italian Association for cancer research, meet in the squares, alongside students and teachers who mobilize within schools, to raise funds and spread awareness of the importance and urgency of prevention. Twenty thousand volunteers will distribute nets of blood oranges grown in Italy (contribution of 13 euros), orange blossom honey (10 euros) and orange marmalade (8 euros). A concrete gesture that can make a difference against cancer, for oneself and for others, through the adoption of healthy habits. You can find the nearest distribution point on arancedellasalute.it. From February 2nd, blood oranges for research will also arrive in supermarkets.
Furthermore, on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th, children, young people, teachers and parents from over a thousand schools become Airc volunteers by distributing oranges, honey and jam as part of “Cancro io ti boccio”, an Airc Foundation project. “With their generous enthusiasm – says Eleonora Pellegrini, a teacher from Rome – the children and young people make perhaps the most important contribution to research: the dream of a possible future in which, thanks to prevention and scientific progress, cancer will be increasingly curable My grandmother had fallen ill with the same tumor as me and died without being able to meet me. Perhaps some boy of that era believed in his dream of making this disease more treatable: it was the seventies. Today I am here with my boys, after five years after a cancer diagnosis, because this dream is gradually becoming reality.”
Numerous studies – highlights the Airc – have demonstrated the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle in reducing the risk of cancer. Up to 40% of new cases are potentially preventable or more curable when we act on risk factors that can be modified through individual behavior: not smoking, doing physical activity, choosing a healthy and balanced diet, adhering to recommended screening for early diagnosis. Yet, in Italy approximately one third of adults have risk factors for the development of cancer. Approximately 33% are overweight and 10% obese, 31% are sedentary and 24% smoke. The most worrying numbers concern school-age children: approximately 39% are overweight and, of these, 17% are obese. These are among the highest numbers in Europe, mainly due to insufficient physical activity and a diet that has moved away from the principles of the Mediterranean diet, recalls the Airc, inviting “everyone to act personally, adopting healthier habits and supporting research to prevent more and more cancers, diagnose the disease early and better treat all types of cancer.”
Transforming research into treatment is the objective of Airc, which will allocate a total investment of over 143 million euros in 2024 for 695 research projects, 93 scholarships, 15 special programs. A commitment that is strengthened with the support of Ifom, the Institute of Molecular Oncology of the Airc Foundation and an international center of excellence. As many as 6 thousand doctors and scientists supported by Airc work in 102 mainly public institutions: university laboratories, hospitals and other research centres.
Already today, research is increasingly healing, as the data shows: in our country around 3.6 million people have overcome a cancer diagnosis, with a 37% increase in survival five years after diagnosis compared to just ten years ago . However, the incidence is growing: 395,000 new cancer diagnoses (208,000 in men and 187,000 in women) estimated for last year in Italy. The search cannot stop.
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