Small hand-painted nativity scenes, wooden angels, bags, candles and Christmas doors. Francesca Viganò was involved in the last activities for the holidays. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, it never stopped and in these days it has kept open the doors of the association that it presides over and that every day cultivates the dream of her daughter Chicca: “Helping unfortunate children like her, helping research against the rare tumor that took her away and against other oncological diseases that affect children “.
A rush to the hospital, holidays abruptly interrupted, the diagnosis of a brain tumor with an unpronounceable name: Dipg, intrinsic diffuse glioma of the bridge. An ordeal that lasted a year, from August 2016 to August 2017; the farewell too soon, at 14 when life is bursting with dreams, laughter, friendships, loves. The end of Federica Del Miglio’s existence is enclosed in this wrong sequence. But his legacy still lives on. And in 4 years the association that bears his name – Chicca, the sun exists for everyone – has managed to raise “a total of about 100 thousand euros”, his mother tells time.news Salute. Funds that ignite research. “We put them on an active protocol at the National Cancer Institute of Milan, we want to find a cure for the tumor that hit Federica”.
For this challenge we need “researchers, but also many other things and the funds we collect with the association are available to the head of the complex structure of pediatric oncology, Maura Massimino, who decides from time to time how to use them. We are trying to do what Chicca would have liked. Carrying on what she believed in is a way to keep her always alive. We have also managed to create a book that collects everything she had written over the years and that I would like to make known. Chicca has also written a song “, who was the protagonist in an episode of the TV show ‘Tu si que vales’ in 2018,” and we managed to record it. My secret dream? To make it fly, perhaps on the wings of a special voice, that of its singer of the heart, Tiziano Ferro “, confides Francesca.
“It will probably be impossible. But I do not stop dreaming and I leave the doors open to what is to come. I would like to hear Chicca’s song on the radio, I would like to hear it everywhere”, says Francesca who also has a project in mind for the book. “I know she would be happy because she loved to write, she wanted to teach letters when she grew up, she loved to study. She did it until the end and her professors were fantastic because they never abandoned her, they even came home to teach her – she explains. – I am convinced that this book can give a lot. I would like to be able to make it known, especially to children, by going to schools, but not only. It is something that is not feasible at the moment, due to Covid, but this project is also there waiting “.
Francesca looks ahead, at how to make the association grow and the good it can do. “What happened to us is the worst thing for a mom and dad, but it led us to do things we didn’t even know we knew how to do. Losing a child changes your life, but it makes you understand and also give to others. many things. For example now I am volunteering in the Pediatrics of the Int, in the clinic. We alternate with other parents. This thing was born because of Covid, we started to help. See the eyes of these children, eyes that they talk, it enriches you so much “.
For the Del Miglio family, the association born in memory of Chicca “is really important. Many people believe in us, they trust us, I see that at Christmas they come and I am happy to make a gesture that is good for us. We have done things”, retraces the president of the association. “In Pioltello, which is our home and was Chicca’s home, we also organized a show, for which we had the opportunity to have Teo Mammucari. The tickets sold like hot cakes in one day. We had Iva Zanicchi, and a ventriloquist – Andrea Fratellini & Zio Tore – who I also took to Pediatrics and made the children go crazy “.
The fruits of these activities were not only aimed at fueling research, and therefore the future: “We also wanted to do something immediately concrete and some time ago, for example, we donated a hi-tech machine for physiotherapy – says Francesca – It’s called Bobo Pro, a support for those who are operated on for cancers that affect the limbs. It helps patients to do exercises with programs, a platform and a screen. It is a very useful tool. Along with this, we have also donated two others aids that were always used for rehabilitation “.
Now “we want to grow”, Chicca’s mother promises herself, who in the meantime keeps three fixed appointments alive: the solidarity activity of Christmas, that of Easter and an event that is always organized on her daughter’s birthday. “Let’s go for a 5 km run, it’s a way to be together and remember her. The day is May 22. But despite the spring month it always rained, and then the sun and the rainbow always came out. Maybe she is the one who he’s trying to tell us something, “he smiles.