Health

One million pieces of personal protective equipment donated to doctors, nurses and rescuers. Over 130 instruments and pieces of machinery purchased in record time for the main Piedmontese hospitals. A bus designed to make swabs and a hired plane to bring Cuban doctors to Turin in the middle of the lockdown. We have always supported the health system but nothing had ever engaged us like the Coronavirus Emergency: for the first time in our history we have not limited ourselves to repairing the damage of a tragedy, but we have found ourselves at the centre of the battle, against an enemy that has often seemed invincible to us.

Customs procedures, transport problems, endless bureaucratic obstacles: despite the difficulties, during the pandemic we collected donations in 70 countries around the world and we immediately transformed them into masks, gowns, CAT scanners, ultrasound scanners. Practical things: those that over the years we had already supplied to all the most important Turin hospitals. From Mauriziano, in the city centre, where we renewed the radiology department, to Sant’Anna, the women’s hospital, where we renovated the entire chemotherapy day hospital. From Regina Margherita, an international reference for children’s diseases where we have reconstructed four wards, to the IRCCS in Candiolo, a centre of excellence for oncological treatments, which we helped to found and recently supported by purchasing an MRI.

The fight against cancer, proximity to sick children and people with disabilities have always been a top priority for our donors. So our work is constant, made up of large construction sites but above all of a lot of daily prevention. There is the cardio protection programme, with cardiological screenings for young people and over 300 defibrillators that watch over the city. Then that of Pet Therapy, with which we support the elderly, children with disabilities and cancer patients. Finally, that of first aid lessons for parents and grandparents. A lesson may be enough to save a life: like that of Chiara, five and a half years old, rescued by her grandmother.