In 2013 Andrea Spinelli, Sicilian by birth but Pordenone by adoption, receives one of those pieces of news that none of us would ever want to receive: adenocarcinoma and a tumor malignant and particularly aggressive that attacks internal organs, leaving very little hope of survival. A piece of news that is like a death sentence: breast cancer pancreas that they diagnosed leaves him with only a life expectancy of 5 years.
Andrea, however, summons all his energy, all his strength, and decides to fight the disease. He does so in the most natural way possible, without any tools other than his feet: he doesn't stop, and he begins to walk.
WALKING AGAINST CANCER
Andrea Spinelli found within himself all the strength and energy necessary to begin the duel with the disease, in the hope of not being overwhelmed by desperation and fear: move, don't stop, walkAs if it were necessary to materialize outside the much more demanding journey that every cancer patient begins as soon as they receive that cursed news.
Andrea's first trip is to the hospital for a check-up: 15 km on foot. Then he pushes his limits a little further and further, going on mountain excursions and even trekking along the paths of Alps and Apennines with a high degree of difficulty, less frequented by hikers. Even reaching the Austrian border, or travelling along the entireEmilian Apennines stretching as far as Tuscany.
Since the diagnosis he has already travelled 13 thousand kilometers, including the path of Santiago de Compostela, the Via Francigena, the Romea StrataFor Andrea, it became the only way to survive, a philosophy of life that led him not to give in to fear. “If I walk, I live” is the title of the blog where he has chosen to document his exploits, with many beautiful photos demonstrating that cancer isn't necessarily a death sentence. And that cancer can be discussed without compassion, pity, or facile stereotypes. Andrea knows the importance of communicating a correct and positive message, having a background in photojournalism, and so he has decided to build a narrative of hope, strength, and courage around his exploits.
Which he doesn't consider heroic, merely human. In the book with the same title as his virtual space, which came after the blog to broaden the audience for this extraordinary message of strength and optimism, he writes: "For me, walking today is my way of reacting to everything that wants me to stop. I don't know if it's courage; it could just be desperation. Am I tough? Tough is the disease I survive. I just act the sick one; time passes and I become more and more expert. It's not a challenge, I'm not a hero, I'm just a human being with cancer who considers every day a gift.».
TO KNOW MORE: Nina's fight against cancer, won with smiles and lots of color (photo)
If I Walk, I Live: The Story of Andrea Spinelli
From Andrea's story, as he experienced it and shaped it, and as he told it to us, we perceive the great strength of spirit that pervades the years he dedicated to surviving cancer. And, above all, the desire to not be considered just a patient. Andrea is convinced that cancer is still talked about too little, and badly.It's talked about as taboo, as something too scary to face. As she writes in her book and on her blog: "If I don't talk about it, I'm helping these crazy cells kill me. I have cancer, and I want to tell everyone. Honestly, I've thought many times that it's important not to be alone. If I don't isolate myself, if I don't keep everything inside, I can do anything, I can even lose, I will lose, but if this sharing of my journey with cancer can bring relief and hope to even just one person, then in the end I won't have lost, I'll have won."
Even the doctors are amazed by his resilience and the fact that he's still telling us about his exploits despite the shocking diagnosis. Andrea, so far, is winning.
(Featured image and accompanying text taken from the blog andreaspinelli.it)
STORIES OF RESILIENCE:
- In Colombia there is a city of only women who have found the strength to resist the war
- Grandma Angela, 98, crochets on the streets of Rome to combat boredom and loneliness.
- Running to defeat cancer: Leonardo Cenci's life as a champion
- The story of Valeria, a winning marathon runner without a spleen. She never gave up and continues to win medals (photo)
- Naoto Matsumura is Japan's hero: he stayed in Fukushima to save the animals (photo)
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