To keep the muscles in her hands active, at the age of 13 her father had given her a small drone to fly with a remote control. A game to make simple exercises less boring. Today Luisa Rizzo She is 20 years old, she has already been Italian Drone Racing champion 4 consecutive times as an athlete of the Aeromodelling national team, and she is preparing for her next competition. A sport in which, as her story teaches, having Sma (spinal muscular atrophy) type 2 did not represent a limit. On the contrary: she has been a lever that has helped her to improve her quality of life as well. And that has become her passion. She doesn’t walk, but thanks to drones she flies, as she says.
Get involved
Luisa began with small amateur competitions, then obtained the FAI license (International Aeronautical Federation) and after two years she began to practice this sport at a competitive level: one of the few women to do so. Today she co-designs the drones together with her father: “He assembles them and I do the tests”, she tells Salute: “The message I would like to get across is that it is always worth getting involved for what you want to achieve. There are many people who, in a situation similar to mine, assume that it is not possible, but it is not certain. We must at least try. Before I started flying drones, I couldn’t even put on glasses or a hat.”
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And so yes, flying drones has also been a good (and fun) rehabilitation exercise. As, on the other hand, is wheelchair football, another sport she plays (here too she was called up to the national team). “With drones, however, I find myself competing with everyone: there are no different categories for disability, nor for men and women. There are no barriers: it doesn’t happen in any other sport.” Luisa aims to make this passion of hers a job, perhaps in the world of cinema (and for this reason she enrolled in the Dams of the University of Lecce), taking advantage of the possibility of doing aerial shots. She shoots for which she is already highly regarded on Youtube, where she publishes her works under the name of Leo on fire. She made her last video last Saturday inside Villa Bellombra in Casteldebole, in the province of Bologna, the structure that has followed her since she was one year old.
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What is Sma
Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare genetic disease that affects motor neurons, the cells that control muscles and movement, which fail to function due to a lack of a protein (SMN). Those affected experience severe muscle weakness, which can compromise the ability to walk, move, but also eat and breathe, to different degrees depending on the type of disease. “Sma 1 is the most serious form, in which one year of life is often not exceeded. In Sma 2, the one Luisa is affected by, patients usually do not walk, while Sma 3 is the slightly milder form”, he explains to health Marcello Villanova, neurologist of the clinic and among the first in Italy to deal with the quality of life of people with neurodegenerative diseases. The damage is unfortunately irreversible, which is why it is important to intervene before it occurs. “Today the natural history of Sma has changed thanks to gene therapy, which allows for pharmacological intervention on the mutation”.
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Therapies and rehabilitation
In the case of Luisa – who has already undergone two spinal operations – and many other patients like her, this option is no longer viable, because it must be done very early, before the Sma progresses. “But, although the disease is not curable, it is still possible to treat it thanks to innovative drugs that aim to stabilize it and rehabilitation interventions that allow to increase life expectancy and, last but not least, to improve its quality – concludes the doctor – . Luisa, like each of the kids with neurodegenerative diseases, has her unique story, but they all have one thing in common: a courage and determination that we who live without disabilities often lack”.