Sport, basketball in this case, as a support for cancer patients and a vehicle for important messages aimed at raising the awareness of young people and their families towards a correct and healthy lifestyle. This is the meaning of the initiative promoted by the Tigers Department – Tana delle Tigri, sponsored by the Municipality of Cesena, with “Atleti al tuo side” by Dr. Alberto Tagliapietra, and in collaboration with Ascom Confcommercio District Cesenate.
The event, divided into several moments, will kick off with a series of meetings that Dr. Tagliapietra will hold with the young Cesena basketball players of Cesena Basket 2005, Nuova Virtus and Livio Neri. On these occasions, the meaning and mission of “Athletes by your side” will be presented, an initiative aimed at supporting cancer patients through sport and athletes. Not only that, young players in Cesena basketball will be given a colored card, on which each of them will be asked to compose a thought, a message of solidarity and support, addressed to a young cancer patient.
On the occasion of the December 8 match against LUISS Roma, the cards, transformed into colored paper balls, will be thrown onto the field, at the duo ball, composing a real rain of thoughts and affection from the city of Cesena. Once collected, all messages will be published in a social column by Tigers and ideally delivered to Dr. Tagliapietra and Atleti al Tuo Fianco, as symbolic (s) supportive Christmas balls, dedicated to cancer patients.
The day of 8 December therefore promises to be full of events and meanings. Before the match, in fact, still at Club Ippodromo, in the splendid context of the Christmas Garden, Dr. Tagliapietra and the Tigers staff will meet the parents of the children of the Cesena basketball clubs and the families who want to freely participate, for an in-depth study on how much sport, healthy nutrition and shared social life are the basis of a healthy life and growth, as well as fundamental prevention tools. At the entrance of the Carisport, from 17.00, a fundraiser will be set up in favor of the activities of Athletes at Your Side and the entrance of the TIgers First Team on the field will be accompanied by Dr. Tagliapietra and the guys from Cesena Basket 2005, Livio Neri and New Virtus.
Five days in which social, solidarity and sport will travel together and on the shoulders of basketball players, large and small, of Cesena, in a period like Christmas and in a context like the present one, in which teaming up in the face of problems is even more important for winning challenges, certainly not just sporting ones.
Fight against cancer ”is an expression that is often used to indicate who is going through a real battle to defeat a malignant tumor and, at the same time, to underline the efforts and progress of medicine in the oncology field. A devastating disease such as cancer, however, hides subtle and unpredictable pitfalls to fight against: one of them is the attempt at isolation to which this pathology subjects, both from a physical point of view, moving away from habitual social and daily life, and cultural, confining the topic in clinical-specialist areas and preventing the topic of tumors from becoming a topic for discussion and peaceful dialogue.
The “Athletes at your side” project, led by Dr. Alberto Tagliapietra, surgeon from Montichiari with a high school diploma in psycho-oncology, and sponsored by the Arenbì Onlus association, launches a cultural challenge: professional sportsmen can approach the theme of cancer simply talking about how they face difficult challenges and opponents in their lives, even though their battles are confined to the sporting arena?
The answer to this question is given by two extraordinary champions of the past testimonials of this project, Lea Pericoli and Nicola Pietrangeli, who have won many battles on the tennis court but also their own personal challenge against cancer.
.
