Last August, digital creator stefano Cirillo, 20, received a life-altering diagnosis: leukemia.

In an interview,he reflects on his journey,offering insights into his health,the challenges he faced,and the support systems that aided his recovery.

“Starting from the end, what is your health at the moment?”

«Fortunately, the worst part passed: in March I concluded the eighth cycle of chemotherapy and, from the exams, the disease has disappeared. For a few weeks I have started a period of maintenance, to prevent recurrence, which will last three years ».

Let’s go back to last August, how did you discover the disease?

«Last summer I came from a long period in which, at a regular expiry, severe back pain and contractures were presented. For months I had been doing exams, without however solving the problem: this was very arduous psychologically, because I could not understand what was going on. At the beginning of July, then, due to particularly strong pain throughout the body and a strong fever, I was hospitalized. From this moment an intense period of investigations began, from which the presence of leukemia emerged.The first cycle of therapy was promptly set which, fortunately, went very well. Seven other cycles of chemotherapy followed. More or less in the middle of the route it emerged that it would not be necessary to proceed with the bone marrow transplant.This was the first – beautiful – news after intricate months ».

«Fortunately, the worst part passed: in March I concluded the eighth cycle of chemotherapy and, from the exams, the disease has disappeared.”

What were the most difficult moments of the path?

«Certainly the expectations: the moments when you are in the balance between good or less good news. The question of the aesthetic-social aspect is also not secondary: these therapies deeply change the physical appearance and the way in which others are shown. I entered the hospital with long hair and my physiognomy; When I went out – two and a half months later – I no longer had even a connotation that I recognized as “mine”. The involuntary reactions of other people also change: you often have eyes on them.It is indeed initially debilitating, so much so that we try to hide; Over time you pay less attention ».

Is there, on the contrary, something that helped you?

«On the one hand, having always kept a routine with friends, often leaving and avoiding insulation and loneliness.Secondly,social networks helped me: I chose to tell this experience of mine. I got many positive support messages, even from people who found themselves living situations very similar to mine ».