MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Today in Italy there are at least 300 thousand Parkinsons, in the plural, one for each patient. In fact, alongside tremor, which is by far the best known symptom, there are others – more than 40 – that combine with each other in different ways and with different intensity in each person. Thus, mood, sleep, and digestion can also be affected, but in all cases, one fixed point emerges: the desire to respond to the disease. So at the center of the Parkinson’s Confederation Italy’s new institutional campaign – launched on National Day (Nov. 30) with the unconditional support of Zambon – are Carla who takes up sport climbing and Paolo who learned to fly anywhere with his simulator, while Valentina became a mother and Massimiliano spreads music and new ideas on the radio. These are some of the true stories of patients’ reactions that testify to how Parkinson’s is “A disease that is a hundred diseases” and that inspire the campaign, the advertising subjects and the social spot that will air in 2025 with the voices of Claudio Bisio and Lella Costa.Most people underestimate the complexity of Parkinson’s and label it as a “tremor disease”-a simplification that the new campaign aims to debunk. “Even today there is a lot of confusion about Parkinson’s and people think that its only consequences are tremors, movement and balance problems. False beliefs that I myself struggled with when – after diagnosis – I experienced the many different manifestations of the disease. Yet, in this multiplicity of situations there is a lowest common denominator: the desire to react and pursue one’s life goals and passions. Hence,” comments Giangi Milesi, President of the Parkinson Confederation Italy, “the decision to give life to an institutional campaign that, thanks to the telling of true stories of reaction, can reveal the many different faces of Parkinson’s and thus dispel the clichés that characterize it. “Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease, with a prevalence that has doubled in the last 25 years and characterized by a multiplicity of symptoms that make its management difficult. “To date, the medical community identifies multiple symptoms of Parkinson’s, ranging from muscle stiffness, slowness and tremor at rest to effects on mood, sleep, digestion, skin and smell. A complexity of manifestations that makes diagnosis and daily management of the disease difficult. As physicians,” says Paolo Calabresi, Full Professor of Neurology, Catholic University and director of the Neurology UOC at Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli Irccs, “we are therefore called upon to help people with Parkinson’s to find the right key to be able to cope with their situation in the best possible way. In this sense, it is very important that patients continue to cultivate their passions and relationships: this, in fact, can help to go beyond the obstacles of the disease and to maintain an active and positive attitude toward the future. “The reaction testimonies of Carla, Paolo, Valentina and Massimiliano are immortalized in photographs by Giovanni Diffidenti and are featured in the advertising subjects and the social commercial with the voices of Claudio Bisio and Lella Costa that will be aired in 2025. The Parkinson Italy Confederation’s campaign was developed by creatives Roberto Caselli, who himself has been living with Parkinson’s for 16 years, and Elisa Roncoroni: “There is Carla who challenges the limits of height and Parkinson’s by sport climbing, while Paolo uses the flight simulator to soar higher and higher. Valentina caresses her belly during motherhood, while Maximilian looks straight into the eyes, without fear, of illness. To bring to light the true, multiple faces of Parkinson’s and dispel the false myths that accompany it, we chose to focus on what they all have in common. Therefore, we focused on true stories of courage and patient response to show the true nature of the disease and restore its complexity. “The impact of Parkinson’s on quality of life is steadily increasing: in fact, the overall Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) disease severity indicator is estimated to have increased by 81 percent in just 20 years, numbers that are expected to increase further as the population ages. “Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s are at the heart of Zambon’s commitment to improve the quality of life of those forced to live with them. In this sense,” says Rossella Balsamo, Medical Affairs & Regulatory Zambon Italy and Switzerland, “is part of our work alongside patient associations to identify tools and services that can alleviate the impact of the diseases. We are therefore very proud to support the Parkinson’s Confederation Italy in this institutional campaign that, by shedding light on the true faces of Parkinson’s, returns the real impact of the disease.”-photo press office Omnicom (credits Giovanni Diffidenti)-(ITALPRESS).
