"We can't control what happens around us. I am not my illness and the diagnosis is not my constant thought: I trusted the doctors and I believe in research."

Manuela Saba, fifty years old, has been fighting cancer for twenty years, without ever losing her strength and positivity.

She is one of the thousands of volunteers of the Airc (Italian Association for Cancer Research) who on Sunday, for Mother's Day, will be in the squares of all Italy to sell the Azalea of Research. Since 1984, the initiative has raised funds to be allocated to research projects on tumors that affect women. There are 202 Sardinian municipalities involved and 279 locations on the island where you can buy a plant to contribute to research.

Last year alone, 175,600 new diagnoses of cancer among women were reported in Italy. While breast cancer remains the most common, many cases involve colorectal cancer and lung cancer. But thanks to prevention and advances in research, two out of three women in Italy are alive five years after the diagnosis. Just like Manuela, who received her first cancer diagnosis exactly twenty years ago.

The full article by Davide Lao on L'Unione Sarda on newsstands, on the app and on the digital edition

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