A Bergamo woman donates bone marrow: “My mother’s illness inspired me”
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“Giving – as Pope Francis said – makes ourselves and others feel happier, and strengthens hope in a better future”. For Valentina maggioni, 37 years old, from Bergamo, the donation of bone marrow also represented a way to return a feeling of gratitude towards life and the world. «The first time I heard of this type of donation – he says – was at the Brescia Army clinics, where I went together with my mom Maria Sunday, for the care she needed ».
Mom suffering from myeloma
Maria Domenica had a Myeloma, a tumor that affects the cells of the bone marrow, after having expressed a monoclonal gammopathy for 15 years, that is, an excessive production of antibodies, which is not a pathological condition but is kept under control: “Then, however – recalls Valentina – this disease has developed, in some way related. Fortunately, my mother had the opportunity to undergo an experimental drug therapy in Brescia, adhering to a European protocol, from 2022 to date. This was my first real and concrete contact with the blood diseases who gave birth to the desire to do something for the sick ».
«My mother gave me a great momentum and inspiration: I saw her face the disease, with everything she involved, with great dignity and courage, relying on doctors with confidence, also enduring some inconveniences and invasive exams. This gave me the starting point to become marrow donor despite being afraid of needles and is generally rather sensitive and impressable “
Valentina accompanied the mother, originally from Vezza d’Oglio, a village of Alta Val Camonica for periodic therapies, and residing for 40 years in Pian Camuno: «My mother gave me a great momentum and inspiration: I saw her face the disease, with everything she involved, with great dignity and courage, relying on doctors with confidence, also enduring some inconveniences and invasive exams. This gave me the starting point to become marrow donor despite being afraid of needles and is generally rather sensitive and impressable ».
The presence of many young people
The patients who attended the hematology clinic were affected: «I was shocked by Great coming and going of people and by the presence of many young people. I didn’t think blood diseases were so widespread. Then I also came across the story of Nicola Viscardi’s disease path,Bergamo and my peer,who did a very vital job of raising awareness on blood diseases and the need for transplantation,telling his experience in a frank,simple and direct way. He made an appeal to donate the marrow, open to those who had the right requirements of age and good health necessary, specifying that the procedure was very simple, and this approach convinced me “.
«At that point I said to myself: why not? So I looked for the admo website and I enrolled online by completing the recruitment form to make the typing »
«At that point I said to myself: why not? So I looked for the Admo website and I signed up online by completing the recruitment form to make the typing. Obviously, from the site you can only register and manifest the desire to enroll in the national register of marrow donors. A few days later the call of the ‘Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital ».
Together in Valle Camonica, the place of the heart
So Valentina came into contact with the Center of the Bergamo donor which refers to the service of immunoematology and transfusion medicine: «I went to make the withdrawal for typing, a very simple procedure, and on this occasion they explained to me better in what the donation consisted of. By dismissing me they warned me of the arrival of an email to formalize the registration in the donor register. At that point I already felt happy for giving my availability, given that the possibility of compatibility between two non -consanguineous people is one of each one hundred thousand. I fantasize about the idea that I could really happen to give, and even just thought made me happy. The doctor Laura Castellani Of the Immunohematology service of Pope John XXIII, who followed me throughout the path, he told me that the inscription can remain without outcome: so it had happened to her, enrolled and typed for thirty years, without ever being called “.
The path alongside the mother
Valentina continued to follow her mother and her therapies: «From the moment of confirmation of the registration in the national register I no longer learned anything for a year and a half, and in the meantime I attended the progress of my mother, who slowly improved and was well.In the clinics, however, we continued to meet many people, some of them in tough conditions. We didn’t talk to them, because we always entered the department with the mask, but this did not prevent observing and understanding what happened to us around us. I was struck by the strength with which these patients faced the disease, with their equipment of pain and suffering ».
Then, in December 2024, just a few days before Santa Lucia, a phone call came from the hospital. «I did not immediately think of the clove of marrow, rather it was precisely the communication of a possible compatibility. They asked me if I was always willing to donate. This is also an aspect that I liked very much, nobody has ever taken for granted that I had to go all the way, I had to confirm my choice at every step, knowing that in the event of unexpected events I could also change my mind. I found it reassuring even if in reality I would never have done it for the sense of obligation that I warned diving into this adventure. I liked that the freedom of the potential donor was preserved, because donating is a choice, not an obligation ». Every time this question was asked, Valentina has always confirmed her choice: “I lived it as a call, this idea of making itself available to another.I approached this path with the intention of returning the luck I had in accompanying my mother in a tiring path of healing, and that I felt as a great gift. It seemed to me the right opportunity to realize and make tangible those values with which I have been grown: the solidarity of sharing, of helping those who are less blessed “.
“I lived it as a call, this idea of making itself available to another. I approached this path with the intention of returning the luck I had in accompanying my mother on a tiring path of healing, and that I felt as a great gift “
So Valentina willingly faced the analyzes necessary to confirm the compatibility with the recipient: «They recalled me on February 5, a few days after my birthday which is the 3, to confirm that I was really that person out of 100 thousand compatible. Maybe precisely as it happened in those days I saw it even more like a gift, for me too. They still asked me what I wanted to do,if I really wanted to continue. Faced with this responsibility, which for me was also an honor and an opportunity, I could not give up.I said to myself that my moment had really arrived ».
The call for donation
The exams that followed were necessary to confirm its suitability for donation: «This aspect is also treated very carefully: it is used to check that the donor is in adequate physical conditions, in order to be able to give no risk. When I was told I represented The only life expectancy for the recipient I was moved as I had the awareness of doing something really useful. Many times in life it happens to give weight to unnecessary concerns, at that moment I felt I did the right thing ».
The doctors had initially foreseen one donation for apheresis, with a sampling with peripheral blood: “Though, they warned me that in the meantime the conditions of the recipient had worsened and thus asked if I was available to the withdrawal from the pelvis bones with a small surgery under general anesthesia, and I gave my consent. I entered the hospital on a Sunday afternoon, and a look was enough to understand how delicate to stay in the hematology department, where ther are immunosuppressed patients. I certainly tried a little anxiety and concern, but I immediately put them aside. Everything went very well, and in the hospital I met careful and competent people, but also available and human. I had to stay at rest and lie down for a day after the surgery. A few days later I started working again, taking up my life ever. I can say that if it were possible I would do it again a hundred more times, even if the limit placed by the donor register is only once ».
“I don’t know if the transplant has gone successful or not, but in my heart I am happy to have given at least one hope to that person and his family, and this is enough for me,” he says.
In the family of Valentina had already been, many years ago, a bone marrow donor: «it is my aunt Andreina, who 3 35 years ago donated the marrow to offer hope to his brother Giuseppe, a suffering of leukemia. She was the only one compatible among the seven brothers. Sadly,the donation in that case had no success,uncle Giuseppe died of leukemia at 45 years old and unfortunately I did not know him,but I feel I had somehow collected the witness of my aunt,who in this adventure has always given me his support,and it was nice to be able to count on his story,on his experience and be able to compare myself with her: the will to make himself available to someone who was not needed,a family person ».
Valentina has since decided to participate also in the awareness -raising activities (bone marrow donor association, Admo.it): «I realized that I was very lucky: there are many people in conditions of fragility and difficulty, health is a precious gift.I therefore think that offering one’s testimony is an integral part of the donation path of the bone marrow, to help make this very important possibility known: each extra donor is a life expectancy, a hand stretched to those suffering ».