All dads are super heroes for daughters, but Filippo is something more. They call him IronDad because after dealing with his daughter Guia’s neuroblastoma he decided to take the field and do the only thing a parent can do when faced with an illness: roll up their sleeves and help raise funds. to search. It was thanks to the progress of scientific research, in fact, that Guia is doing well today as he tells Oncoline Filippo Minuto, 44 years old, engineer from Genoa, who in his free time trains in view of the next sporting enterprise in favor of the Italian Association for the Fight against Neuroblastoma Onlus which is distinguished by the logo showing the ‘child with the funnel’, an image of joy despite pain, the joy of childhood to be encouraged also through research.
Four months in the hospital
The Minuto family is large. Filippo and his wife Isabella have four wonderful children: Vittoria, Agostino, Guia and Marlene to whom is added the dog Salvia. Unfortunately, at some point, something disturbs their happiness. Guia, in fact, enters the hospital, at the Gaslini in Genoa, which was just three months old and remained there for about a year between surgery and other therapeutic treatments. Neuroblastoma is the most common early childhood cancer (approximately 7-10% of cancers in children aged 0 to 5 years) and the most frequent extracranial solid tumor in pediatric age. The mean age of diagnosis is 18 months and 90% of cases are diagnosed before the sixth year of life. “Today my daughter is fine, but I cannot say that she is healed nor can I say that she is sick” says the father, recalling that now the little girl has to undergo the ritual checks every six months.
Want to make a contribution
Guia went through a course of about a year of chemotherapy even at high doses, stem cells, surgery to remove the mass and then radiotherapy. Immediately after his daughter was discharged, Philip felt that something should also be done for all the other children. “I didn’t want to feel totally helpless in front of the sight of all those sick children you know in the ward,” says Filippo. “Ever since I was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in Guia, I decided to join the Italian association for the fight against neuroblastoma (http://www.neuroblastoma.org/), founded 23 years ago by a parent like us and by doctors who devote all their strength to finding the cure to defeat this disease. All the moments spent at Gaslini in the oncology ward, in transplantation, in surgery and in day hospital have made us understand how lucky we have been to date and have allowed us to change the point of view on our life by really understanding what things really are. important for which it is worth fighting for. Therefore, you enter the hospital thinking about ‘why it happened to me’ and when you are there you understand that we are ‘we’ and all the children must be well and must heal. You feel a bit like everyone’s dad ”. Not surprisingly, Filippo was nicknamed ‘IronDad’.
How the idea of solidarity tenders was born
In short, Filippo did not want to stand by, but to be an active part and make his own contribution to the search for funds for the association and scientific research. But why the Ironman? It is a long distance competition that consists of 3.8 km of swimming, 180 km of cycling and a 42.2 km marathon for a total of 226 km. A great challenge: “The idea was born taking a cue from my dear friend Timothy who had done something similar years before”, says Filippo. “After Guia’s surgery I told myself that if we got out of the hospital I would have done a half Ironman, but my friend Timmy rightly told me that at least I should have done it complete and it did.”
Fundraising of the Association
With the first race in 2017 Filippo is the protagonist in Vichy, France, of a triathlon that allows him to collect € 76,000, while with the second in 2019 in Cervia he reached € 100,000.00 all donated directly to the Italian Association for Fight against Neuroblastoma Onlus. There are many fundraising initiatives organized by the Association in support of research for the treatment of this tumor which affects especially in preschool age and which in Italy has about 130 new cases a year. On the occasion of Christmas, the new campaign “Gift research. They laugh at life ”, sponsored by Assoarma, National Alpine Association, National Carabinieri Association, Local Police Association, Financial Police, State Police, Defense Staff. The initiative aims to give new hope to girls and boys affected by this disease by choosing solidarity gifts that help research on www.neuroblastoma.org, ANB Store section, under the heading “For your magical Christmas”.
The next goals
The association’s objective for the three-year period 2022-2024 is to invest in projects already started before the slowdowns due to the Coronavirus pandemic to consolidate the results obtained so far: “Ours is an invitation to solidarity – he declares in relation to the campaign Natale, the president of the association, Sara Costa – to give priority to areas such as the study of genes, DNA mapping, immunotherapy, personalized medicine, precision medicine for the identification of increasingly ‘intelligent drugs ‘able to act only where it is needed. Projects implemented according to a network logic, with the common commitment of research and treatment centers characterized by authority in the Italian scientific and healthcare panorama ”.
The next Ironman in 2022
Covid has put a stop to various initiatives, including sports competitions in which Filippo participated, today also actively involved in the Association. “Unfortunately, the races have been suspended and postponed and with the problems related to Covid I have not even been able to train very well” explains Filippo who announces his ambitious program: “I’m starting to train gradually to recover after the stop imposed by Covid and from January I will start training more intensely because in 2022 I will organize a new fundraiser by carrying out the last Ironman, when they should confirm the recovery of little Guia ”. The date set is that of September 17, 2022 and the race will take place in Cervia. “We understood how important is the work of the doctors in the wards and the work of the nurses who all together contribute to giving life hope to sick children and at the same time great affection and support to parents who have fallen into the worst nightmare of their existence”, explains Filippo who he adds: “I will carry out a kind of private Crowdfunding which I hope as for the other times it can become ‘viral’ and go around Italy hoping that the many friends can spread this fundraising and involve many other people, increasing the amount”.
.